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PRINCETOX  .  NEW  JERSEY 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
ROBERT  ELLIOTT  SPEER 


BX  5945  .S8  1919 

Suter,  John  Wallace,  1859- 

1942. 
The  people's  book  of  worship 


Cburcb  iprtnclples  for  Xas  people 


THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK 
OF  WORSHIP 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

HBW  YORK  •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO  •   DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •   BOMBAY  •   CALCIHTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 
TORONTO 


THE  PEOPLE'S 
BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

A  STUDY  OF  THE  BOOK 
OF   COMMON   PRAYER 


BY  ,  \%: 


JAN  15  19 
JOHN  WALLACE  SUTER^'^^^^^^AL  ^ 

AND 

CHARLES  MORRIS  ADDISON 


ii3eto  gotfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1919 

All  rights  reserved 


COPTEIGHT,  1919 

By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published,  April,  1919 


TO 

H.  J.  S. 

AND 

A.  T.  A. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    The  Meaning  of  Worship  ...  i 

II     The  Book  Itself ii 

III  The  Fundamental  Principles  .      .  23 

IV  The  Three  Working  Principles    .  34 

V    Morning     Prayer     and     Evening 

Prayer 44 

VI     The  Litany 56 

VII     The  Holy  Communion  ....  62 

VIII    The  Spirit  of  the  Book  and  its  Use  70 


THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK 
OF  WORSHIP 


THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK 
OF  WORSHIP 

I 

THE   MEANING  OF   WORSHIP 


THE  Book  of  Common  Prayer  is  one  of  many 
forms  by  which  the  religious  life  expresses  it- 
self in  worship.  Before  we  can  study  the  Book  in- 
telligently, we  must  first  consider  its  purpose. 
That,  very  evidently,  is  to  provide  an  authoritative 
form  for  the  expression,  in  public  and  corporately,  of 
the  human  desire  to  worship  God,  as  it  is  found 
among  members  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America.  The  meaning  and 
value  of  its  contents  can  only  be  judged  when  we 
have  settled  what  we  are  to  understand  by  worship, 
and  that  in  turn  must  be  governed  by  what  we 
know  of  the  character  of  God,  who  is  the  object 
of  our  worship.  To  have  a  false  idea  of  God's  na- 
ture must  give  a  false  tone  to  our  worship.  "  He 
that  Cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  he  is,  and 
that  he  is  a  rewarder  of  them  that  seek  after  him." 
(Heb.  II :  6).     The  angry  God  must  be  propitiated 


2     THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

with  the  blood  of  men  and  beasts,  the  sensuous  God 
with  the  odor  of  incense,  the  God  who  is  far  off 
will  be  worshiped  differently  from  the  God  who 
is  within;  if  God  is  only  the  great  theological 
Purist,  we  need  only  approach  him  through  the 
Westminster  Catechism,  which  is  a  different  ap- 
proach from  that  of  the  prodigal  to  his  loving 
Father.  The  God  whom  we  worship  in  the  use 
of  our  Prayer  Book  is  the  one  revealed  to  us  by  his 
Son,  a  Person  who  is  Spirit,  a  Person  who  can  be 
loved  by  us  with  all  our  heart  and  mind  and  soul 
and  strength,  because  we  too  are  spirits,  and  be- 
cause he  is  our  Father  and  we  are  his  children.  It 
is  that  sense  of  relationship  at  the  root  of  our  re- 
ligion which  constitutes  our  right  to  approach  this 
God,  and  which,  once  felt,  draws  us  to  worship  in 
this  way. 

Given  the  true  God,  then,  our  worship  is  what 
we  do  when  we  are  conscious  of  him,  of  his  worth- 
iness and  his  presence.  Because  worship's  root 
meaning  is  worth-ship,  the  acknowledgment  of  the 
dignity,  the  infinite  value  of  God.  Worship  is  the 
attitude  and  the  act  of  man  when  he  realizes  how 
much  God  is  worth.  The  thought  of  God  com- 
prises everything  that  we  can  conceive  as  most  wor- 
thy. What  he  is, —  all  powerful,  ever-present,  in- 
finitely righteous,  loving  and  merciful, —  is  worth 
more  to  us  than  anything  else  in  the  world.  If 
he  were  not,  or  if  he  were  not  all  this,  then  life 
would  be  not  worth  living,  nothing  would  be  worth 
while.  But  in  him  all  life  gains  a  value  and  all 
we  are  and  all  we  have  and  all  we  hope  to  be  be- 
comes of  worth  to  us  because  God  is  and  is  what 


THE  MEANING  OF  WORSHIP         3 

he  is.  The  vision  of  the  worship  of  God  in 
heaven,  so  beautifully  set  forth  in  the  Apocalypse, 
is  only  the  vision  of  God  and  his  perfection,  the 
adoration  of  his  worthiness.  "  And  when  the  liv- 
ing creatures  shall  give  glory  and  honor  and 
thanks  to  him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne,  to  him 
that  liveth  forever  and  ever,  the  four  and  twenty 
elders  shall  fall  down  before  him  that  sitteth  on 
the  throne  and  shall  worship  him  that  liveth  for- 
ever and  ever  and  shall  cast  their  crowns  before 
the  throne,  saying,  '  Worthy  art  thou,  our  Lord 
and  our  God,  to  receive  the  glory  and  the  honor  and 
the  power:  for  thou  didst  create  all  things,  and 
because  of  thy  will  they  were,  and  were  created.'  " 
(Rev.  4:  9-1 1.) 

This  acknowledgment  of  the  infinite  worth  of 
God,  this  adoration  of  him  for  his  perfections,  this 
dedication  of  ourselves  to  his  service,  is  the  expres- 
sion of  our  religious  life,  and  is  not  to  be  confined 
to  certain  times  and  places.  Religion  is  all  inclu- 
sive and  so  is  worship.  It  takes  in  all  of  life.  It  is 
not  an  appendage  or  attachment  to  life.  It  is  con- 
stant, not  recurrent.  Laborare  est  orare.  "  Serv- 
ices," as  we  call  what  we  do  in  church,  are  only 
a  part  of  our  "  bounden  duty  and  service,"  which 
Christians  are  trying  to  render  all  the  time. 

'*  True  worship,"  says  Charles  Kingsley,  ''  is  a 
life,  not  a  ceremony."  And  before  him  St.  James 
had  said,  '*  Pure  religion  and  undefiled  before  our 
God  and  Father  is  this,  to  visit  the  fatherless  and 
widows  in  their  affliction  and  to  keep  himself  un- 
spotted from  the  world."  (James  1:27.)  And 
the  word  translated  "  religion  "  here,  means  serv- 


4     THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

ice,  or  worship ;  the  truest  expression  of  our  rev- 
erence for  God  is  always  and  everywhere  to  do  his 
will  in  ministering  to  his  children. 

This  is  all  true.  But  in  studying  the  Prayer 
Book,  we  are  justified  in  confining  ourselves  to  this 
particular  aspect  of  the  religious  life,  which  has 
come  to  be  commonly  known  as  Worship  —  what 
we  do  when  we  are  definitely  conscious  of  God's 
presence  and  worth  and  have,  or  ought  to  have, 
nothing  else  to  do. 


We  are  also  justified  in  still  further  narrowing 
the  scope  of  our  study  by  eliminating  the  worship 
of  the  individual.  It  is  possible  and  very  general 
and  very  valuable  to  worship  God,  in  private.  But 
the  Prayer  Book  we  are  to  study  is  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  and  implies  the  corporate  char- 
acter of  its  worship.  Religion  not  only  takes  in 
the  whole  of  each  man's  life,  but  is  distinctly  social 
and  is  only  true  religion  when  it  feels  its  brother- 
hood as  one  family  of  God.  Because  God  is  the 
Father  of  a  family,  he  is  never  truly  known  except 
as  a  Father.  So  Christ  taught.  And  no  father 
can  be  known  except  in  relation  to  his  family,  in 
his  home  and  around  his  family  board.  We  may 
use  no  selfish,  personal  pronouns  in  addressing  him. 
We  must  say  "  Our  Father,"  remembering  his  other 
children. 

So  we  believe  that  the  highest  form  of  worship 
must  be  social,  the  most  effective  prayer  must  be 
Comm.on  Prayer.  The  sense  of  God's  presence 
may  be  very  vivid  to  the  man  who  has  shut  the 


THE  MEANING  OF  WORSHIP         5 

door  and  is  alone  with  God,  but  there  is  a  promise 
of  a  more  special  presence  to  the  group  of  even 
two  or  three,  and  then  the  communion  with  God 
comes,  as  we  know,  not  only  directly,  as  in  the 
closet,  but  communicated  with  a  thrill  from  soul 
to  soul,  in  the  worshiping  assembly.  The  mere 
fact  of  aggregation  enhances  the  ability  of  each 
individual  in  the  crowd  to  realize  a  great  fact  or 
spiritual  truth.  In  all  great  crises  men  naturally 
flock  together.  So  in  worship,  as  in  sorrow  or  in 
joy,  men  learn  by  gathering  together  and  feel  more 
deeply  than  any  could  alone. 

"  Psychologists  have  noted,"  says  Streeter,  "  this 
power  of  mutual  stimulus  as  the  explanation  of  the 
fact  that  bodies  of  men  acting  together  under  a 
single  impulse  are  capable,  whether  for  good  or 
evil,  of  a  sensitiveness  to  impression,  of  a  depth 
of  emotion,  or  of  a  strength  of  purpose  far  beyond 
the  individual  capacity  of  their  constituent  mem- 
bers. Is  it  strange,  then,  that  experience  should 
show  that  a  group  of  men  or  women  are  capable 
of  realizing  and  appropriating  the  inspiration  of 
the  Divine  Presence,  or  of  submitting  themselves 
to  the  guidance  of  the  Divine  Will,  to  an  extent 
far  exceeding  anything  which  would  have  been 
possible  to  them  alone?  The  Divine  Presence  is 
always  there;  the  gathering  together  of  the  faith- 
ful is  not  a  magic  spell  which  attracts  to  a  par- 
ticular spot  what  was  previously  absent,  but  it  may 
and  does  enable  them  individually  to  realize  and 
appropriate  that  which  was  always  there,  and  en- 
ables them  to  see  clearly  what  before  was  hidden 
by  a  veil." 


6     THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

To  sum  up,  therefore,  we  shall  say  that  public, 
corporate  worship,  which  our  Prayer  Book  attempts 
to  express  and  give,  while  mysterious,  as  must  be  all 
intercourse  with  the  Infinite,  is  simply  the  attitude 
and  act  of  man,  sensible  of  God's  presence  and 
feeling  God's  worth.  Now  this  feeling  and  its 
expression  may  take  many  forms.  Whatever  is 
natural  for  a  child  of  God  to  think  and  do  in  the 
felt  presence  of  his  Father  is  a  form  of  worship. 
It  may  be  confession  of  sin,  as  he  sees  himself  and 
his  past  life  in  the  presence  of  God's  holiness;  it 
may  be  the  yearning  to  know  of  God's  nature  and 
will,  as  revealed  and  heard  in  his  Word,  w^hether 
God  is  forgiving  or  not,  loving  or  not;  it  may  be 
fervent  petition  for  some  benefit  sought  or  it  may 
be  a  burst  of  praise,  in  the  face  of  his  glory.  These 
are  all  aspects,  or  parts,  of  worship.  It  is  to  the 
consideration  of  the  question  whether,  and  if  so, 
how,  our  Prayer  Book  gives  fitting  expression  to 
this  worship,  as  we  have  defined  it,  that  the  follow- 
ing pages  are  devoted. 


Ill 

But  before  we  take  up  the  study  of  the  Book 
Itself,  a  few  words  are  necessary  on  the  need  and 
method  of  expressing  this  worshipful  attitude  in 
act.  The  ideal  worship  is  before  us:  and  the  ideal 
is  always  the  real.  But  the  ideal  must  have  its 
visible,  concrete  expression.  What  the  soul  feels 
in  the  presence  of  God  must  come  out  in  some  form. 
Just  as  the  ideal  man  must  take  flesh,  just  as  the 


THE  MEANING  OF  WORSHIP         7 

ideal  Church  must  take  form  in  the  organized  and 
visible  church,  just  as  the  organized  church  must 
express  and  perform  its  functions  through  a  min- 
istry, so  the  Church's  desire  to  worship  God  must 
find  for  itself  some  outward,  and  organized  and 
authoritative  expression. 

We  encounter  here  two  conflicting  theories  which 
must  be  discussed  before  we  can  understand  the 
principle  on  which  our  Prayer  Book  is  framed  as  a 
vehicle  of  expression  and  a  guide  to  our  common 
worship. 

A  genius  for  comprehension  is  one  of  the  marks 
of  our  church.  This  may  and  sometimes  does  de- 
generate into  mere  compromise,  but  at  its  best  it 
means  giving  fair  play  to  contradictions,  allowing 
each  its  chance  and  holding  both  to  be  essential  to 
the  perfect  whole. 

In  this  matter  of  worship  one  man  feeling  in- 
tensely the  spiritual  in  his  intercourse  with  God, 
even  in  its  public  form,  regards  the  quiet  of  silence 
as  the  only  worshipful  atmosphere.  He  regards  as 
distracting  and  intrusive  any  motions,  or  sounds, 
and  would  worship  him  who  is  Spirit  only  in  spirit. 
Thus  the  so-called  Quaker  thinks  and  he  is  being 
joined  by  many  in  our  own  church,  who  appre- 
ciate and  depend  more  and  more  upon  services  of 
silence  to  feed  their  souls  and  render  spiritual  wor- 
ship to  God. 

At  the  other  extreme  one  sees  the  service  of  the 
Holy  Orthodox,  or  Eastern  Church,  and  notes  the 
elaboration  of  posture  and  act,  of  music  and  incense, 
each  act  full  of  meaning  and  the  whole  of  worship 


8     THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

strikingly  dramatic  and  appealing  to  the  senses  by 
every  avenue.  Any  error  in  act  or  word  vitiates 
the  worship. 

In  which  of  these  two  ways  should  we  worship 
God?  In  neither,  but  in  both,  using  each  to  curb 
the  other,  and  finding  only  so  the  full  expression  of 
all  the  soul  desires  when  it  comes  to  meet  God. 
To  take  two  very  loosely  defined  and  much  misun- 
derstood terms,  let  us  call  the  first  of  these  the 
Puritan  and  the  other  the  Ritualistic  position. 
Both  are  right,  but  only  when  joined,  both  as  ex- 
tremes and  alone  fail  to  express  the  whole  heart  of 
man's  worship.  For  man  is  body  and  spirit  and  as 
the  body  without  the  spirit  is  dead,  so  the  spirit 
without  the  body  is  dumb  and  expressionless.  In 
this  world,  certainly,  neither  is  without  the  other, 
though  one  may  be  higher  than  the  other.  Just  as 
the  government  is  not  the  denial  of  the  primary 
fact  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  but  makes  it 
operative,  just  as  the  organized  church  with  its 
appointed  ministry  is  no  denial  of  the  priesthood 
of  all  believers,  so  the  outward  forms  and  symbol- 
isms of  our  worship  are  no  contradiction  to  the 
truth  of  the  spiritual  access  to  God.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  they  are  absolutely  necessary  for  the  appre- 
ciation and  expression  of  the  larger  truth. 

The  danger  to  the  Puritan  is  that  his  worship 
after  a  while  dies  of  inanition,  for  that  which  is 
unexpressed  dies;  while  the  danger  to  the  Ritualist 
is  that  he,  after  a  while,  dies  of  a  surfeit  because  the 
body  has  become  to  him  more  than  the  soul. 

There  should  be  no  question  of  partisanship  with 
regard  to  what  is  called  Ritualism.     For  that  only 


THE  MEANING  OF  WORSHIP         9 

means  the  science  of  Rites,  of  any  sort,  plain  or 
ornate,  and  even  in  its  ordinary  meaning  to-day  is 
only  the  use  of  symbolic  emblems  and  acts  to  ex- 
press spiritual  things. 

According  to  this  definition,  we  are  all  ritualists 
because  we  are  human  and  we  cannot  express  the 
spiritual  in  us  save  by  the  use  of  symbols.  The 
Puritan  is  a  ritualist  when  he  permits  the  sweet 
tones  of  the  organ  to  lull  him  with  a  response;  he 
is  a  ritualist  when  he  stands  to  sing  a  hymn  or  bows 
his  head  in  prayer.  The  "  Low  "  churchman  who 
wears  his  surplice  in  a  cruciform  church  and  lifts 
his  hand  in  blessing  over  his  congregation,  is  a  rit- 
ualist, for  he  is  making  use  of  symbols,  as  he  must, 
to  express  the  otherwise  inexpressible. 

On  the  other  hand  we  must  remember  that  any 
act  of  worship  is  not  only  expressed  towards  God 
as  adoration,  but  has  its  reflex  action  towards  the 
worshiper  as  education.  And  just  as  we  may  be 
sure  God  wishes  us  to  worship  him  not  only  in 
spirit  but  in  truth,  so  we  must  be  very  careful  that 
what  we  are  doing  in  church  trains  us  in  the  truth. 
For  that  is,  or  should  be,  the  basis  of  any  objection 
that  may  be  felt  to  much  that  is  called  Ritualism. 
It  is  not  its  use  of  symbols  that  is  objectionable,  but 
its  use  of  symbols  to  express  that  which  our  church 
has  repudiated  and  deems  false.  The  symbols  and 
symbolic  acts  must  not  be  used  to  express  a  theory 
of  transubstantiation ;  they  must  not  set  forth  a 
false  sacerdotalism.  If  Ritualism  means  these 
things,  it  is  bad,  but  not  as  ritualism,  simply  as  un- 
truth and  so  disloyalty.  If  what  it  does  in  church 
means  nothing,  then  it  is  petty,  unworthy  and  ir- 


lo    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

reverent.  If  it  is  used  to  teach  error,  it  is  worse 
than  this.  But  when  it  expresses  the  truth  of  the 
child's  loving  approach  to  his  Father,  then  the  more 
we  have  of  it  the  better,  art  in  all  its  branches  to 
beautify  our  churches,  and  adorn  our  services,  the 
most  expressive  and  affecting  liturgy  we  can  com- 
pose or  compile,  using  all  the  riches  of  the  past  and 
calling  in  all  the  contributions  of  the  present. 

Does  our  Prayer  Book,  in  word  and  act,  fulfill 
all  these  demands,  and  if  so,  how? 

SUGGESTED  READING 

Freeman:    The  Principles  of  Divine  Service. 
Gratacap:    Philosophy  of  Ritual. 


II 

THE    BOOK   ITSELF 


THE  method  of  treating  the  Prayer  Book  pur- 
sued in  this  book  is  primarily  descriptive.  It 
is  an  attempt,  in  a  simple  way,  to  describe  what 
manner  of  book  it  is  which  we  hold  in  our  hands. 
It  assumes  that  we  do  hold  it  in  our  hands,  and  use 
it,  as  members  of  the  worshiping  congregation. 
That  other  methods  of  treatment  make  a  strong  ap- 
peal is  not  denied.  The  historical  method,  which 
deals  with  the  origins  of  the  book,  and  reveals  its 
sources,  has  its  fascinations.  The  book  is  so  full 
of  history  that  its  use  as  a  manual  for  teaching 
the  history  of  the  Christian  Church  is  conceivable, 
and  might  well  prove  helpful.  The  apologetic 
method,  which  would  seek  to  commend  it  to  those 
who  worship,  and  yet  do  not  use  the  Prayer  Book, 
is  a  valuable  method  in  unearthing  its  hidden  treas- 
ures. The  practical  method,  which  would  employ 
it  as  a  manual  for  the  teaching  of  worship,  or  re- 
ligious expression,  is  a  method  full  of  possibilities 
for  realizing  and  strengthening  the  religious  life. 
The  normal  method  would  unfold  its  excellencies 
as  a  text-book  for  the  teaching  of  teachers,  who  are 
called  upon  to  train  children  in  its  use,  and  to  help 
II 


12    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

them  to  the  knowledge  of  how  to  worship,  is  a  much 
needed  exercise.  But  the  present  attempt  is  purely 
descriptive.  In  being  descriptive,  it  will,  of  neces- 
sity, be  not  altogether  forgetful  of  other  possible 
methods  and  their  demands.  It  cannot  avoid  the 
appeal  to  the  basis  in  history,  nor  can  it,  if  it 
would,  avoid  the  remembrance  of  those  who  w^or- 
ship  according  to  its  forms,  or  who  are  engaged  in 
teaching  the  Church's  children,  or  those  to  whom 
its  power  and  inspiration  are  unknown;  and  with 
this  remembrance  there  dwells  the  hope,  at  the 
heart  of  the  description,  that  what  is  here  written 
may  bring  new  light  and  new  power  of  expression 
to  all  who  worship,  to  the  increase  in  them  of  true 
religion. 

II 

What  then  is  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer?  In 
the  first  place,  it  is  not  a  book  at  all,  but  a  library 
of  books,  bound  together  to  make  one  volume.  It  is 
this  very  same  description,  applied  to  the  Bible, 
which  has  done  so  much,  as  a  starting  point,  to  re- 
store the  Bible  to  this  generation,  as  a  source  of 
power  and  inspiration.  Setting  out  from  this  de- 
scription, Christians  of  to-day  have  come  into  an 
understanding  of  the  richness  which  is  revealed  to 
them  through  the  results  of  the  Higher  Criticism, 
and  have  at  the  same  time  been  released  from  the 
blighting  effects  of  regarding  the  Bible  as  a  fetich, 
possessed  of  an  authority  which  is  infallible,  but  at 
the  same  time  incomprehensible,  and  inapplicable  to 
the  soul's  needs.  In  a  similar  way,  starting  from 
the  conception  of  a  library,  we  are  led  to  apprehend 


THE  BOOK  ITSELF  13 

the  riches  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  to 
discover  its  unrealized  treasures  of  helpfulness  for 
the  worshiper,  while  we  are  at  the  same  time  freed 
from  the  superstition  of  regarding  it  as  the  Church- 
man's sacred  fetich,  not  to  be  touched  or  altered, 
and  to  be  honored  by  empty  phrases  as  to  its  in- 
comparable excellence,  rather  than  used  with  intel- 
ligence and  freedom,  to  the  soul's  health. 

What  are  the  books  which  make  up  this  library? 
They  are  five  in  number,  and  are  arranged  in  this 
order. 

1.  The  Book  of  Daily  Offices,  or  Services;  or 
(to  use  one  word  of  Latin  and  ancient  origin)  the 
Breviary.  This  book  contains  Morning  Prayer, 
Evening  Prayer  and  the  Litany,  together  with  cer- 
tain Prayers  and  Thanksgivings,  for  occasional  in- 
sertion in  these  above  named  services. 

2.  The  Book  of  the  Holy  Communion,  or  Mis- 
sal. This  book  contains  the  Divine  Liturgy,  or 
Order  for  the  Lord's  Supper,  or  Holy  Communion, 
together  with  the  Collects,  Epistles  and  Gospels  for 
the  Sundays  and  Holy  Days  of  the  year,  which  are 
to  be  inserted  in  that  service. 

3.  The  Book  of  Offices  for  Special  Occasions, 
or  the  Manual,  or  Minister's  Hand  Book.  This 
book  contains  the  services  for  Baptism,  Confirma- 
tion, Matrimony,  Churching  of  Women,  Visitation 
and  Communion  of  the  Sick  and  Burial  of  the  Dead, 
—  following  the  course  of  an  individual  Christian's 
life,  with  offices  of  the  Church's  benediction  upon 
that  life's  experiences  from  birth  to  death. 

4.  The  Book  of  Psalms,  or  the  Psalter,  a  Bible 
book,  extracted  and  printed  here,  for  convenience, 


14    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

since  the  Psalms  are  so  constantly  used  in  the 
Church's  services;  and  given  substantially  in  the 
ancient  translation  of  the  Great  Bible  of  1539,  the 
work  of  that  master  of  the  English  tongue,  Cover- 
dale,  "  a  translation  of  a  poet,  and  not  of  a  diction- 
ary," and  preserved  in  our  Prayer  Book,  in  prefer- 
ence to  later,  more  accurate  translations,  because  of 
its  adaptability  for  musical  rendering,  and  because 
its  simple  and  forcible  vocabulary  and  beautiful 
rhythm  endear  it  to  the  people. 

5.  The  Book  of  Forms  for  Ordination^  or  the 
Ordinal. 

Ill 

The  first  question  which  occurs  to  one  in  regard 
to  the  contents  of  the  volume  as  thus  given,  is  why 
it  is  made  to  contain  so  much.  It  is  primarily  a 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  that  is  to  say,  a  handbook 
for  the  worshiping  congregation.  For  the  people's 
use  only  the  first  two  books  are  needed,  together 
with  the  Psalter,  for  the  sake  of  convenience. 
These  books  supply  all  that  is  required  by  worship- 
ers from  day  to  day.  Why  bind  up  with  these 
books,  the  priest's  book,  containing  the  Baptismal 
and  other  offices,  and  the  Bishop's  book,  containing 
the  services  of  ordination?  The  answer  to  this 
question  is  to  be  found,  in  the  first  instance,  by 
reference  to  the  temper  of  the  Reformation-time, 
out  of  which  our  English  Prayer  Book  came  into 
being.  The  watchword  of  the  Reformation  is  im- 
mediacy of  relationship.  The  soul  is  to  approach 
God  directly,  without  the  intrusion  of  mediatorial 
priestliness.     The    Church   belongs   to    the   people. 


THE  BOOK  ITSELF  15 

The  worship  is  theirs,  and  is  to  be  in  their  own 
language.  It  is  not  expedient,  nor  is  it  edifying 
that  the  priest  should  have  a  book  of  his  own,  nor 
the  bishop  his  special  book.  The  rites  and  cere- 
monies which  concern  the  life  of  the  people,  the  or- 
dinations of  the  people's  ministers,  must  be  in  their 
own  hands,  open  to  their  knowledge  and  under- 
standing, free  for  their  constant  reading  and  study, 
designed  for  their  participation.  These  offices  are 
not  merely  to  be  heard  occasionally,  and  participated 
in  solely  by  the  people's  presence,  nor  liable  to  the 
clergyman's  unguarded  discretion.  They  concern 
intimately  the  development  of  the  individual  wor- 
shiper's life  —  especially  the  Manual,  which,  in 
its  offices,  touches  upon  the  great  moments  of 
Christian  experience.  The  principle  is  a  sound  one, 
and  is  likely  to  preserve  the  book  intact  in  its  pres- 
ent general  outline  and  inclusiveness. 


IV 

Another  question  which  occurs  to  one  who  turns 
the  pages  of  the  Prayer  Book,  with  the  above  out- 
line in  mind,  is  as  to  the  omissions  in  that  outline. 
Not  all  which  is  to  be  found  between  the  covers  of 
the  book  is  mentioned.  This  is  true.  The  outline 
of  the  Five  Books  as  printed  above  is  not  exhaustive. 
It   is  general,   covering  the  essential  points. 

Let  us  consider  the  omissions. 

a.  In  Book  I,  no  mention  was  made  of  the  Pen- 
itential Office.  This  Office  does  not  properly  be- 
long in  this  place.  It  is  occasional,  in  the  sense 
that    it    is   designed    primarily    for   one   day,    Ash 


i6    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

Wednesday.  It  Is  comparable  to  the  Office  for 
Thanksgiving  Day,  which  is  now  printed  in  the 
Manual,  with  the  other  occasional  offices.  In  the 
rearrangement  of  the  Prayer  Book,  which  is  con- 
templated in  connection  with  the  revision  of  the 
book  now  in  process,  the  Penitential  Office  will 
doubtless  be  removed  from  Book  I  to  Book  III.  It 
is  true  that  there  is  a  double  use  of  the  word  occa- 
sionalj  in  this  connection,  which  is  somewhat  con- 
fusing. The  Penitential  Office  is  an  occasional 
congregational  service, —  while  the  occasional  offices 
proper  are  not  congregational  in  the  same  sense,  but 
rather  personal.  There  is,  however,  no  separate 
book  of  Occasional  Offices  of  the  Congregation,  and 
a  place  for  the  Penitential  Office  at  the  end  of  Book 
III   is  better  than  its  present  position  in  Book  I. 

b.  In  Book  III,  the  following  offices  were 
omitted  in  the  outline,  viz. :  The  Catechism,  Forms 
of  Prayer  at  Sea,  Visitation  of  Prisoners,  Thanks- 
giving Day  Services,  Family  Prayer.  In  regard  to 
them,  these  things  are  to  be  noted. 

I.  The  Catechism.  The  first  and  most  obvious 
thing  to  say  about  the  Catechism  is  that  it  seems 
out  of  place  in  a  book  of  worship.  This  is  true 
whether  we  consider  it  as  a  hand-book  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  young,  or  as  a  brief  compendium  of 
theological  teaching.  But  it  is  also  true  that  it  is 
interwoven  with  the  two  offices  for  Special  Occa- 
sions between  which  it  stands,  viz.:  Baptism  and 
Confirmation,  and  is  referred  to  in  both  these  offices. 
For  this  reason  it  is  likely  to  remain  where  it  is, 
unless  these  offices  are  radically  revised.  Such  re- 
vision is  certainly  needed  in  the  case  of  Baptism, 


THE  BOOK  ITSELF  17 

and  is  greatly  to  be  desired.  It  is  further  to  be 
remarked  that  the  Catechism  has  old  and  treasured 
associations  with  many  users  of  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer,  and  is  not  without  significance  as  a 
symbol  of  the  consecration  of  education  in  the  un- 
folding of  the  Christian  life.  These  reasons,  to- 
gether with  certain  excellencies  of  statement  in  the 
Catechism  itself,  add  to  the  likelihood  of  its  con- 
tinued inclusion,  in  some  form,  within  the  book. 

2.  The  Forms  of  Prayer  to  be  used  at  sea, — 
and  the  Form  for  the  Visitation  of  Prisoners  have 
nothing  to  commend  them  as  offices,  and  their  con- 
tents in  general  are  archaic  and  not  helpful  in  meet- 
ing the  needs  of  the  Church  to-day.  Both  forms, 
with  the  exception  of  certain  prayers,  will  doubtless 
be  dropped  from  the  book  at  the  next  revision. 

3.  The  Thanksgiving  Day  Service  has  no  fea- 
tures which  require  its  printing  as  a  separate  office. 
Its  excellent  suggestions  and  lessons,  sentences,  can- 
ticles and  prayers,  as  well  as  collect,  epistle  and 
gospel,  can  be  distributed  to  the  different  places  in 
the  book  where  they  naturally  belong,  the  office 
itself  in  this  way  disappearing,  while  all  of  value 
that  it  contains  is  preserved. 

4.  Forms  of  Prayer  to  be  used  in  Families.  It 
may  be  decidedly  useful  to  include  within  the  vol- 
ume of  the  people's  book  of  worship,  a  suggested 
form  for  Family  Prayer.  It  would  be,  moreover, 
unfortunate  to  discourage  a  practice  already  suffi- 
ciently discouraged,  by  dropping  this  material  from 
the  book.  But  it  has  no  place  in  the  Manual,  or 
book  of  Special  Offices,  and  is  easily  lost  sight  of, 
where  it  stands.     The  suggestion  is  a  good  one  to 


i8    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

dignify  it  with  a  separate  title  page,  to  enlarge  it 
somewhat  by  adding  certain  prayers,  and  to  place  it 
outside  the  Prayer  Book  proper  (so  making  it  amen- 
able to  easier  revision) — but  just  inside  the  back 
cover  of  the  volume.  The  forms  as  they  now  stand 
in  the  book  are,  it  is  true,  old-fashioned,  and  of  a 
fashion  not  belonging  to  the  days  of  the  happiest 
liturgical  expression.  These  forms  have,  however, 
a  certain  flavor  and  suggestiveness  of  their  own, 
and  with  slight  revision,  are  capable  of  being  used 
helpfully  and  appealingly.  When  combined  with 
prayers  of  more  immediate  reference  to  to-day's  con- 
ditions and  needs,  they  ought  to  form  a  little  book 
of  family  prayer  of  great  usefulness,  and  serve  to 
commend  a  practice  to  which  our  people  ought  to 
return. 

c.  In  Book  V,  no  mention  was  made  in  the  Out- 
line of  the  Form  of  Consecration  of  a  Church,  and 
the  Office  of  Institution  of  Ministers.  This  was 
with  the  intention  of  emphasizing  the  important 
contents  of  this  book,  the  ordination  services.  The 
inclusion  of  these  two  offices  in  the  book  makes 
of  it  a  Pontifical,  or  Bishop's  Book,  rather  than  an 
Ordinal,  the  title  chosen.  Of  course,  a  Bishop's 
Book  proper  would  also,  in  order  to  serve  the 
bishop's  convenience,  include  the  other  service  which 
peculiarly  belongs  to  him,  the  Confirmation  Service. 
But  it  is  important  and  helpful  in  a  people's  book 
that  this  office  should  stand  w^ith  the  other  offices 
in  Book  III,  which  so  vitally  concern  the  Christian's 
personal  religious  life.  The  two  offices  mentioned 
above  are  peculiar  to  the  American  Prayer  Book. 
While  open  to  some  criticisms,  when  compared  with 


THE  BOOK  ITSELF  19 

the  best  liturgical  standards,  they  possess  dignity, 
and  contain  some  excellent  material.  This  is  es- 
pecially true  of  the  Office  for  the  Consecration  of  a 
Church.  Moreover,  they  represent  occasions  for 
the  bishop's  presence  which  are  of  very  real  sig- 
nificance in  the  life  of  the  congregation.  They 
were  conceived  to  be  the  two  occasions  of  deepest 
concern  recurring  in  a  parish's  history;  and,  on  the 
whole,  this  judgment  must  stand  approved.  It  is 
undoubtedly  true,  if  the  American  Church  ever 
authorizes  a  Book  of  Offices  (a  book  which  would 
conceivably  contain  offices  for  the  Laying  of  a  Cor- 
ner Stone,  for  the  Dedication  of  a  Parish  House, 
Rectory,  or  Hospital,  for  the  Benediction  of  Me- 
morials, etc.),  that  these  two  services  will  be  trans- 
ferred to  such  book,  leaving  the  Ordinal  to  stand 
by  itself.  Meantime,  they  will  remain  where  they 
are  now,  a  part  of  Book  V. 

The  Litany  and  Holy  Communion  now  printed 
in  Book  V  are  there  because  they  were  needed  there 
in  connection  with  ordinations,  when  this  book  was 
bound  by  itself  as  a  separate  book.  Now  that  it  is 
bound  up  with  the  other  books,  they  are  not  needed, 
since  they  are  provided  in  a  more  convenient  form 
elsewhere,  and  these  will  doubtless  be  removed  from 
the  revised  Prayer  Book. 


There  is  to  be  found  in  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  besides  the  five  books  which  represent  its 
real  contents,  still  other  material.  There  stands 
printed,  at  the  beginning,  the  prefatory  matter,  and 
at  the  end,  the  Articles  of  Religion. 


20    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

a.  The  Prefatory  Matter.  This  matter,  besides 
a  descriptive  title  page,  and  a  table  of  contents, 
which  things  are  common  to  books  in  general,  in- 
cludes first  of  all  the  Ratification  of  the  book  by 
the  new-born  American  Church  of  1789,  together 
with  the  interesting  and  illuminating  preface  of  the 
same  date.  There  then  follow  these  items  for  the 
convenience  of  users  of  the  book. 

1.  Tables  of  Proper  Psalms  and  Lessons,  as 
suggested  for  certain  days  and  seasons. 

2.  Tables  of  Feasts  and  Fasts. 

3.  General  directions  as  to  the  services  of  the 
Church. 

In  addition  to  these  convenient  directions  and 
tables,  there  is  included  in  this  prefatory  matter 
certain  tables  for  finding  the  date  of  Easter,  includ- 
ing tables  for  finding  the  Dominical  Letter.  These 
present  a  difficult  and  mysterious  study  to  the  aver- 
age man,  who  is  w^ithout  miathematical  or  astro- 
nomical leanings,  and  seem  of  doubtful  value  in  a 
people's  book  of  worship.  It  is  recorded  of  Dr. 
Hart,  the  late  custodian  of  the  book,  to  whom  the 
Church  is  indebted  for  helpful  teaching  about  the 
Prayer  Book,  based  upon  a  careful  and  sympathetic 
study  of  its  history',  that  he  strongly  advocated  the 
retention  of  the  tables  in  the  volume  as  a  sort  of 
symbol  of  mystery,  a  pledge  of  those  hidden  treasures 
of  the  volume,  which  are  the  reward  of  the  patient 
student  and  constant  user. 

b.  The  Articles  of  Religion.  There  can  be,  of 
course,  no  liturgical  excuse  for  the  retention  of  the 
Articles  in  our  Book  of  Worship.  They  are  an 
interesting  exhibit  of  an  attempt  at  theological  defi- 


THE  BOOK  ITSELF  21 

nition  dating  from  Reformation  times.  They  do 
not  express,  in  many  instances,  the  thoughts  of  men 
to-day  on  the  great  themes  with  which  they  deal. 
When  they  do  express  these  thoughts,  they  express 
them  in  an  outgrown  language.  They  are  not 
"  binding,"  as  a  prerequisite  for  membership  or  of- 
fice in  the  Church,  upon  either  clergy  or  people. 
What  keeps  them  in  the  book  is  a  vague  feeling 
that  they  express  a  spirit  which  their  excision  might 
seem  to  deny,  and  which  no  one  wishes  to  deny, — 
the  spirit  of  freedom,  which  is  the  supreme  heritage 
of  the  Reformation,  and  that  attitude  towards  the 
life  of  the  Christian  and  of  the  Christian  Church 
which  makes  our  Church  a  Reformed  Church. 


VI 

The  stranger  to  our  Church's  forms  of  worship 
sometimes  finds  the  Prayer  Book  a  puzzling  book 
through  which  to  find  one's  way.  It  seems  at  times 
to  this  stranger  that  the  book  is  specially  designed 
to  make  the  finding  of  one's  place  practically  im- 
possible. It  must  be  confessed  that  there  are  cer- 
tain inevitable  difficulties,  in  the  use  of  a  book  of 
worship,  which  cannot  be  overcome.  Its  very 
genius,  expressed  in  its  use  of  varying,  or  alternat- 
ing, or  of  varyingly  appropriate  forms  or  selections, 
renders  a  certain  amount  of  turning  back  and  forth 
inevitable.  All  that  the  lover  of  the  book  can  say 
to  the  bewildered  novice  is  that  it  is  worth  all  the 
study  and  trouble  he  can  give,  to  learn  how  to  use 
it,  and  to  discover,  with  pains  if  need  be,  its  riches. 

At  the  same  time,   it  is  certainly  to  be  desired 


22    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

that  in  its  arrangement  it  should  be  as  simple  and 
convenient  as  possible.  To  this  end,  certain  changes 
in  its  present  make-up  are  recommended.  These 
are,  in  the  first  place,  to  move  the  Collects,  Epistles 
and  Gospels  from  their  position  before  the  Order 
for  the  Holy  Communion  to  a  place  immediately 
following  that  service.  The  result  will  be  that  the 
four  great  services  of  constant  congregational  use, 
Morning  and  Evening  Prayer,  Litany  and  Holy 
Communion,  will  stand  together  in  the  first  part 
of  the  book.  The  Prayers  and  Thanksgivings,  it 
is  suggested,  should  come  between  the  two  Daily 
Offices  and  the  Litany,  into  which  services  they  are 
most  commonly  introduced.  This  will  bring  the 
Litany  to  a  position  immediately  before  the  Holy 
Communion,  a  place  not  without  appropriateness, 
since  it  is  frequently  used  as  a  preparation  for  Holy 
Communion.  That  the  Manual,  the  book  of  occa- 
sional offices  which  most  closely  concern  the  people, 
should  follow,  as  it  does,  the  two  books  which  com- 
prise the  people's  congregational  offices  is  appro- 
priate. 

It  is  true  that  the  Psalter  is  in  a  sense  primarily 
associated  with  the  Daily  Offices,  and  might  for 
that  reason  stand  next  to  the  first  book.  It  is  also 
true  that  Psalms  are  being  increasingly  used  as  In- 
troits  to  the  Holy  Communion  in  Book  II,  and  are 
required  in  some  of  the  offices  of  Book  III,  and  it 
is  probable  that  the  present  place  of  the  Psalter  is 
the  most  convenient  one,  while  its  bulk,  if  intro- 
duced next  the  Daily  Offices,  would  break  up  the 
helpful  juxtaposition  of  the  great  services  of  the 
people's  worship. 


Ill 

THE    FUNDAMENTAL    PRINCIPLES 
GROWTH   AND   COMPREHENSION 

I 

BY  the  Principle  of  Growth  is  not  meant  the 
fact  of  growth.  The  fact  of  growth  is  un- 
questioned. Our  present  Prayer  Book  has  grown, 
through  a  process  covering  many  years,  into  the  book 
it  is  to-day.  This  fact  really  reveals  a  growing 
principle  in  the  book  itself,  which  makes  it  a  living 
book.  The  Principle  of  Growth  is  based  upon  the 
fact  that  our  American  Prayer  Book  is  the  result 
of  four  processes  of  revision  extending  through  three 
centuries.  It  is  based  upon  the  fact  that  the  Book 
has  gathered  up,  and  contains  within  itself  precious 
treasures  out  of  the  experience  in  worship  of  past 
ages.  And  this  very  fact  is  in  itself  an  assurance 
of  new  treasures  to  come  out  of  new  experiences, 
and  of  formal  and  deliberate  revisions,  as  in  the 
past,  so  also  in  the  future.  The  Prayer  Book  is  not 
an  historical  relic.  It  is  not  a  monument  to  the 
manners  in  worship  and  pious  observance  of  a  de- 
funct religion.  It  is  the  continuing  hand-book  of 
a  living  religion.  Its  revisability,  its  adaptability, 
its  readiness  to  absorb  new  material  and  to  redis- 
2Z 


24    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

cover  old,  its  inherent  principle  of  growth,  this  it 
is  which  is  the  pledge  of  the  Prayer  Book's  vitality. 

The  first  of  the  four  great  revisions  is  the  Prayer 
Book  of  Elizabeth  in  1559,  the  Revision  of  the  Re- 
formation. The  outstanding  fact  about  it  is  that  it 
is  a  Book  of  Worship  in  the  English  language. 
Henceforth  the  Prayer  Book  is  to  be  the  people's 
book,  in  their  own  tongue,  and  in  their  own  hands. 
The  five  books  which  constitute  it  had  been  pre- 
viously five  Latin  books.  They  had  been  the  books 
of  the  priests,  or  of  the  technically  *'  religious." 
They  are  now  to  belong  to  all  Christ's  people,  all 
the  Church's  children.  The  first  service  to  become 
Englished  was  the  Litany,  and  rightly,  as  the  most 
markedly  of  all  services  the  people's  service.  This 
had  been  set  forth  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth. 

The  other  outstanding  fact  was  that  it  was  the 
book  of  a  Reformed  Church.  It  undertook  to  cor- 
rect Roman  abuses  in  worship  and  practice.  It 
was  not  only  a  translation  into  the  simplicity  and 
understandableness  of  the  people's  spoken  language; 
it  was  also  a  translation  out  of  the  accretions  and 
remotenesses  of  a  scholastic  and  sacerdotal  system 
into  the  simplicity  and  immediacy  of  the  Christian 
fellowship  of  primitive  tradition,  when  the  Church 
was  the  people's  Church. 

The  book  of  Elizabeth  was  itself  the  final  out- 
come of  the  Reformation  process.  There  had  been 
two  books  immediately  preceding  it  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  VI.  The  first  book  of  Edward  VI  had 
been  the  book  of  the  more  traditional  or  Catholic 
cast.  The  second  book  of  Edward  VI  was  the 
book  of  a  more  pronouncedly  Protestant  hue.     The 


THE  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES     25 

final  book  represented  the  completion  of  the  task  of 
revision.  It  became  the  book  of  the  English  church, 
and  continues,  in  spite  of  some  further  revision, 
that  Church's  book  to-day.  We  have  spoken  of  the 
two  outstanding  facts  of  the  Reformation  Revision ; 
but  we  are  not  to  forget  that  it  was  a  revision. 
We  are  not  celebrating  the  creation  of  a  new  book. 
It  was  the  old  book,  or  books,  with  the  genius  of 
their  services,  in  the  main,  preserved,  and  with  their 
great  utterances  in  prayer  and  praise,  marvelously 
enshrined  in  the  unequaled  English  of  the  period. 
For  this  we  are  indebted  to  the  great  translators  of 
the  Bible  into  English, —  and  especially  are  we  In- 
debted to  the  genius  of  Cranmer. 

The  second  of  the  four  revisions  was  the  Book  of 
1662,  the  Revision  of  the  Restoration.  After  the 
years  of  Cromwell,  and  the  period  of  Puritan  su- 
premacy, upon  the  occasion  of  the  return  of  the 
Stuarts  and  the  rehabilitation  of  Episcopacy,  a  re- 
vision of  the  Prayer  Book  was  undertaken  and 
carried  through.  While  the  changes  were  very 
numerous,  they  were  all  minor  changes,  and  the 
revision  represents  no  fundamental  principles,  as 
was  the  case  a  hundred  years  before. 

The  third  great  revision  Is  the  revision  of  1789, 
the  date  of  our  first  American  book.  This  is  the 
Revision  of  the  Revolution.  In  a  new  land.  In  the 
face  of  new  conditions,  the  temper  of  the  revision 
was  radical.  The  revisers  were  willing  to  consider 
everything.  It  is  true  that  the  resultant  changes 
were  not  very  numerous  or  very  great,  but  we  are 
not  to  be  misled  into  imagining  that  the  business 
in  hand  was  principally  to  substitute  the  word  Presi- 


26    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

dent  for  the  word  King.  The  Communion  office 
was  vitally  altered.  One  of  the  Creeds  (the  Atha- 
naslan)  was  dropped.  There  was  talk  of  dropping 
the  NIcene  Creed.  The  Apostles'  Creed  was 
amended.  Nothing  was  sacrosanct.  The  needs  of 
the  people  were  paramount.  Language  was  altered, 
to  be  more  intelligent,  or  rhythmical,  or  more  con- 
sonant with  an  American  sense  of  humor.  It  hap- 
pened that  the  two  leaders  in  the  movement  were 
representative  of  the  two  elements,  w^hose  compre- 
hension had  been  the  supreme  task  of  the  Reforma- 
tion book.  These  were  Bishop  Seabury,  the  Catho- 
lic-minded, and  Bishop  White,  the  Protestant- 
minded.  To  the  former  we  are  indebted  for  the 
splendid  revision  of  the  Communion  Service,  and 
to  the  latter  for  insistence  upon  the  liberties  and 
sanities  that  the  hour  demanded,  and  also  for  a  for- 
tunate ear  for  phrase  and  rhythm,  comparable  to 
Cranmer's  great  gifts  along  these  lines. 

The  fourth  revision  is  that  of  1892,  the  Revision 
of  Enrichment, —  which  we  may  write  en-RIchment, 
in  order  to  secure  the  four  R's  of  the  four  revisions. 
Here  again  was  a  revision  of  details,  as  In  1662, 
rather  than  a  revision  of  radicalism.  It  was  a  pe- 
riod of  hesitancy  and  timidity.  There  was  a  great 
and  widespread  fear  that  doctrine  might  be  under- 
mined, or  the  precious  heritage  of  the  great  book 
Impaired.  The  outstanding  figure  In  the  work  was 
that  of  Dr.  Huntington,  who  brought  to  the  task 
great  enthusiasm  and  wisdom,  and  who  won, 
through  his  generous  tactfulness,  and  parliamentary 
prowess,  the  confidence  of  the  whole  church.  His 
controlling  thought  and  desire  was  for  the  unity 


THE  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES    27 

of  the  Church,  the  unity  of  American  Christianity, 
and  he  believed  that  the  Prayer  Book,  if  revised  to 
meet  present  day  needs,  would  prove  a  potent  influ- 
ence to  bring  about  the  sought-for  end.  He  pos- 
sessed, furthermore,  that  indispensable  quality  for 
the  task  of  revision,  a  keen  liturgical  sense,  and  a 
sensitive  ear  and  unerring  touch,  combined  with  the 
necessary  facility  and  yet  reticence  in  expression. 
It  has  been  said  that  after  the  careful  labors  of 
twelve  years,  from  1880  to  1892,  the  result  was, 
after  all,  insignificant.  There  is  truth  in  this,  but 
when  we  remember  the  difficulties  of  the  undertak- 
ing at  that  time,  and  look  to  the  effect  of  having 
accomplished  revision  at  all,  rather  than  to  specified 
results,  the  work  is  to  be  recognized  as  highly  sig- 
nificant, not  only  for  our  own  Church,  but  for  the 
whole  Anglican  communion.  Moreover,  the  de- 
tailed changes  have  more  than  justified  themselves. 
It  will  be  noticed  that  the  four  revisions  are  al- 
most exactly  a  hundred  years  apart,  and  also  that 
they  alternate  as  between  radical  and  detailed  re- 
visions. Because  of  the  time  periods,  probably,  it 
came  to  pass  that  after  1892,  it  was  freely  prophe- 
sied that  the  business  of  revision  was  over  for  a  hun- 
dred years  at  least.  Subsequent  events  have  not 
verified  this  prophecy.  Times  and  occasions  change 
rapidly  in  these  later  years,  and  instead  of  a  cen- 
tury, a  generation  only  marks  the  beginning  of  a 
new  process  of  revision.  If  we  count  a  generation 
as  thirty-three  years,  it  is  exactly  that  between  the 
inauguration  of  revision  in  1880  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  present  Commission  on  Revision  in 
191 3.     Moreover,  it  looks  as  if  the  principle  of  al- 


28    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

ternation  were  to  hold,  and  as  if  a  radical  revision 
were  in  contemplation.  The  temper  of  the  Church 
is  manifestly  to  the  effect  that  everything  is  open 
to  consideration,  and  possible  amendment  or  re- 
vision, and  this  temper  is  encouraged  and  strength- 
ened by  the  lessons  of  the  Great  War.  It  is  not 
meant  by  this  that  the  faith  of  the  Church  is  shaken, 
or  to  be  altered.  Nor  is  it  meant  that  the  services 
of  chief  moment,  the  great  services  of  the  congrega- 
tion, are  to  be  changed  in  their  general  outline  or 
content.  It  is  meant,  rather,  that  the  needs  of  the 
religious  life  of  men  are  paramount,  and  that  they 
must  be  met  by  a  flexibility  in  forms  never  even 
contemplated  before,  by  new  expressions  in  prayer 
to  meet  new  requirements  and  aspirations,  and  by 
radical  revision  of  the  special  offices,  for  Baptism, 
Marriage  and  Burial  and  the  like,  where  the  de- 
mand for  change  is  insistent  and  universal. 

The  record  of  the  great  revisions  is  the  record 
of  such  formal  or  official  changes  as  illustrate  the 
principle  of  growth.  But  that  principle  is  realized 
even  more  clearly  in  a  larger  outlook,  which  remem- 
bers how  the  book  has  gathered  up  into  itself  the 
religious  forms  and  prayer  and  praise  utterances  of 
the  ages.  All  the  Christian  centuries  have  left  their 
marks  upon  it.  Phrases  and  prayer  utterances  go 
back  to  the  Fathers  of  the  first  centuries,  and  litur- 
gical forms  like  the  *'  Sursum  Corda,"  the  "  Lift 
up  your  hearts  "  of  the  Communion  Service,  are  de- 
rived from  the  very  earliest  times.  The  terse  and 
pregnant  clauses  of  the  collects  reflect  the  Latin 
genius  of  the  centuries  when  the  church  of  Rome 
dominated.     The  devotional  utterances  of  the  Re- 


THE  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES     29 

formation  time,  with  the  freshness  of  its  religious 
awakening,  find  a  place.  There  are  reminiscences, 
sometimes  ancient,  sometimes  more  modern,  which 
rejoice  in  a  method  of  repetitional  phrases,  for  em- 
phasis or  elucidation.  There  are  suggestions  of  the 
impress  of  later  devotional  thought  and  expression, 
from  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  and 
even  to  our  own  times. 

More  than  this,  there  lie  imbedded  in  the  book 
the  religious  influences  of  the  synagogue,  as  well 
as  all  the  wealth  of  Jewish  devotion,  especially  in 
the  Psalms,  or  in  the  derivations  or  suggestions 
which  spring  from  them.  And  what  is  good  in  ap- 
proaches to  worship  or  methods  of  expression  in 
heathen  rites,  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  or  other 
forms,  has  left  its  impress.  Still  further,  there  is 
formal  adoption,  and  sanctification  of  those  atti- 
tudes and  gestures  of  the  worshiping  soul,  which 
antedate  all  formal  religions,  and  whose  remote 
sources  we  cannot  even  guess.  Such  are  the  bended 
knees  of  prayer,  the  erect  pose  of  praise  and  of 
prayer  too,  and  the  hands  of  blessing  upon  the  head, 
with  their  downward  palms.  It  is  good  to  remem- 
ber these  things.  The  book  testifies,  indeed,  upon 
its  every  page,  to  its  inherent  principle  of  growth. 

And  this  principle,  as  we  look  back,  teaches  us  to 
turn  about,  and  to  look  forward.  This,  its  funda- 
mental principle,  is  a  pledge  to  us  that  is  to  take 
up  Into  itself  in  times  to  come,  sufficing  expression 
of  the  newer  aspirations  of  religion,  the  developing 
needs  of  worship.  To-day,  religious  experience 
finds  common  expression  in  the  realization  of  God 
in  nature,   in   the   enthusiasms   for  education   and 


30    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

philanthropy  and  social  reform,  in  the  expanding 
and  soul-stirring  activities  of  missionary  zeal  and 
world  federation.  These  must  find  fuller  utterance 
in  the  people's  book  of  worship.  We  may  rest 
assured  that  they  will  find  such  utterance,  and  that 
other  forms  of  expression  in  prayer  and  praise, 
which  our  present-day  imagination  cannot  compass, 
will  find  their  place  within  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer. 

II 

The  second  fundamental  principle  of  the  Prayer 
Book  is  the  Principle  of  Comprehension.  By  com- 
prehension is  meant  neither  comprehensibility,  nor 
yet  comprehensiveness.  It  connotes  something  spe- 
cial. It  is  based,  this  principle,  upon  the  happen- 
ings out  of  which  the  English  Prayer  Book  issued. 
It  represents  that  great  experiment  in  the  life  and 
worship  of  the  church  which  specifically  character- 
izes the  historic  church  of  English-speaking  peoples. 
It  consists,  where  there  are  two  diiiering  and  di- 
vergent, even  to  all  appearance  contradictory  views, 
in  the  refusal  to  choose  the  one  or  the  other,  or  to 
compromise  between  them,  and  in  the  insistence 
upon  embracing  both,  each  in  its  fullness.  It  is  the 
pledge  of  catholicit}''. 

The  problem  which  faced  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land at  the  time  of  the  Reformation  was  the  prob- 
lem of  maintaining  a  national  church  for  the  people 
of  England,  and  a  church  which  should  include  all 
the  people.  It  must  embrace  within  itself  the  Cath- 
olic-minded and  the  Protestant-minded, —  the  two 
sides,  which  were  represented  in  the  great  struggle. 


THE  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES     31 

There  must  be  room,  and  ample  and  satisfying 
room,  for  those  who  loved  and  held  by  the  ancient 
traditions,  and  forms  and  usages  of  the  past,  and 
for  those  who  keenly  resented  the  errors  which  had 
crept  into  the  ancient  church,  and  whose  minds  and 
souls  were  strongly  set  against  the  perversions  in 
truth  and  practice  which  characterized,  they  be- 
lieved, a  corrupted  order.  The  Church  of  England 
set  itself  resolutely  to  the  task  with  a  conscious 
determination,  and  with  a  will  to  be  fair  and  to 
succeed.  There  were  leaders  of  the  people,  to 
whose  patience  and  wisdom  the  success  of  the  great 
experiment  was  in  large  measure  due.  The  re- 
sultant Prayer  Book  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  which 
had  been  preceded  by  the  Catholic-minded  book  of 
Edward  VI,  the  first  of  that  reign,  and  by  the' 
Protestant-minded  book,  the  second,  is  an  eloquent 
tribute  to  the  genius  of  those  to  whom  the  task  was 
entrusted,  and  to  the  purpose  and  will  of  the  people 
of  the  land,  which  sustained  them.  For  that  book 
remains  substantially,  after  all,  the  book  of  to-day. 
It  continues,  after  four  centuries,  the  book  alike 
of  Catholic-minded  and  Protestant-minded  wor- 
shipers,—  used  and  loved  by  all.  In  practically 
every  service,  one  might  almost  say  on  every  page, 
it  bears  its  witness  to  the  great  experiment,  or  rather 
to  the  great  success,  to  the  triumphant  principle  of 
comprehension. 

In  the  unfolding  of  the  Church  Year,  those  Cath- 
olic-minded people,  who  would  find  there  days  of 
Mary,  may  find  them  in  the  Annunciation  and  Puri- 
fication, while  those  same  days  are  to  the  Protestant- 
minded,  days  of  our  Lord,  as  indeed  they  are.     In 


32    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

the  Baptism  offices,  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  regen- 
eration, and  the  Protestant  insistence  upon  repent- 
ance and  faith  stand  side  by  side;  and  the  sign  of 
the  Cross,  or  its  omission,  are  equally  recognized. 
In  the  Confirmation  service  are  to  be  found  both 
the  Catholic-minded  emphasis  upon  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  the  Protestant  conception  of  the 
renewal  of  vows.  In  the  Ordination  of  Priests, 
there  are  two  sentences  of  ordination  provided  as 
alternates,  one  for  the  Catholic,  the  other  for  the 
Protestant.  Formerly  there  stood  in  the  Litany  the 
ultra  Catholic  suffrage:  "  Saint  Mary,  Mother  of 
God,  all  holy  patriarchs  and  prophets.  Pray  for  us," 
and  the  ultra  Protestant  prayer: — "  From  the  tyr- 
anny of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  all  his  detestable 
enormities.  Good  Lord,  deliver  us."  Both  have 
now  been  happily  eliminated  by  mutual  and  glad 
consent,  since  they  contravened  rather  than  exempli- 
fied the  principle. 

The  central  and  all  sufficient  example  of  the  prin- 
ciple lies  at  the  heart  of  the  book,  at  the  solemn 
moment  of  the  distribution  of  the  elements  in  the 
Holy  Communion.  The  Catholic-minded  book  of 
Edward  VI  had  the  Catholic-minded  sentence  of 
distribution:  ''  The  Body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
which  was  given  for  thee,  preserve  thy  body  and  soul 
unto  everlasting  life."  The  Protestant-minded 
book  of  Edward  VI  had  the  Protestant-minded  sen- 
tence, ''  Take  and  eat  this  in  remembrance  that 
Christ  died  for  thee,  and  feed  on  him  in  thy  heart, 
by  faith,  with  thanksgiving."  The  solution  was  to 
say  both  (as  they  stand  in  both  sentences  to-day), 
one   after   the   other.     There   was   no   decision   of 


THE  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES     33 

choice.  There  was  no  compromise,  by  so  much  as 
an  iota.  There  was  perfect  application  of  the 
Principle  of  Comprehension.  We  have  here  its 
complete  exposition.  And  the  great  double  sentence 
stands  in  the  book  of  worship  as  the  final  justifica- 
tion of  the  principle,  and  as  the  enduring  monument 
to  the  genius  of  the  book. 


Ill 

The  two  principles,  of  Growth  and  Comprehen- 
sion, have  obviously  an  intimate  relation.  In  their 
interplay  is  the  guarantee  of  the  book's  endurance, 
and  the  indication  of  the  possibility  for  growth 
through  successful  revision.  When  it  is  urged,  in 
any  consideration  of  the  book's  revision,  that  doc- 
trine must  not  be  touched,  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  what  is  meant  is,  that  the  sacred  and  funda- 
mental principle  of  comprehension  must  not,  by 
so  much  as  a  jot  or  tittle,  be  impaired.  There  must 
continue  to  exist,  within  the  book's  scope,  for  Cath- 
olic-minded and  Protestant-minded  alike,  the  fullest 
opportunity  for  freedom  and  satisfaction  in  w^or- 
shlp.  Nothing  must  be  done  to  cause  either  to  feel 
less  at  home.  The  lon<T-maintained  union  in  the 
common  worship  of  the  Church  must  not  be  jeopard- 
ized. 


IV 

THE   THREE   WORKING   PRINCIPLES 


BESIDES  the  two  fundamental  principles  which 
underlie  the  whole  structure  of  the  book,  there 
are  certain  Working  Principles  which  are  essential 
to  its  intelligent  and  helpful  using.  The  first  of 
these  is  the  Principle  of  Interpretation.  The  neces- 
sity for  the  application  of  this  principle  rests  in  the 
circumstance  that  by  its  very  nature,  a  book  of 
worship  embodies  within  it  forms  and  expressions 
which  are  ancient,  and  which  continue  unaltered 
through  generations,  and  indeed  centuries.  Such 
forms  and  expressions  are  the  things  which  first  of 
all  commend  the  book  to  the  user,  and  make  of  it 
a  treasury  of  devotion.  At  the  same  time,  their 
very  presence  demands,  if  the  ancient  utterances  are 
to  be  realities  for  modern  experiences,  that  there 
should  be  a  working  principle  of  interpretation. 
The  principle  is  based  upon  the  fact  that  our  preser- 
vation of  ancient  forms  of  expression,  which  secure 
to  us  the  historic  sense,  and  the  grateful  feeling  of 
oneness  with  Christ's  people  of  all  ages,  necessitates 
the  filling  and  re-filling  of  these  forms  with  the 
thoughts  and  experiences  and  convictions  of  to-day, 
the  immediate  utterances  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the 
34 


THREE  WORKING  PRINCIPLES      35 

Church.  Flexibility  of  interpretation  becomes  of 
the  essence  of  creed  and  liturgy.  The  principle  of 
interpretation  is  for  us  the  pledge  of  reality.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  multiply  illustrations,  but  a  mo- 
ment's thought  serves  to  convince  us  that  we  are 
constantly  called  upon  to  exercise  this  principle.  A 
familiar  illustration,  often  referred  to,  is  the  clause 
in  the  creed,  *'  the  resurrection  of  the  body."  The 
original  concept  of  the  resuscitation  of  flesh  and 
bones  has  become  universally  untenable.  Behind 
the  concept  was  a  faith  which  endures  in  the  per- 
sistence of  the  individual.  There  are  new  concepts, 
as  to  the  methods  of  this  persistence,  and  the  words 
are  reinterpreted  to  fit  these,  and  that  without  great 
difliculty  or  embarrassment.  The  collects  use  not 
infrequently  legalistic  language  in  regard  to  God 
and  his  dealings,  which  springs  out  of  Latin  con- 
cepts. The  concepts  are  no  longer  ours,  but  we 
interpret  the  language  to  fit  our  new  and  as  we 
believe  better  thoughts.  We  turn  expressions  which 
belonged  to  a  Calvinistic  and  outgrown  doctrine  of 
original  sin,  to  fit  our  modern  notions  of  heredity. 
In  the  Marriage  Service  we  keep  on  saying,  "  Who 
giveth  this  woman  to  be  married  to  this  man?" — 
although  we  strongly  repudiate  the  chattel  notion 
regarding  woman,  out  of  which  the  words  sprang, — 
because  we  interpret  it  as  a  gracious  opportunity 
for  recognition  of  the  father's  love  and  protecting 
care.  The  process  is  familiar  to  Christians  of  every 
name  in  the  use  of  hymns.  We  continue  to  use 
hymns,  just  because  they  are  old  and  familiar,  or 
beautiful  in  form  or  expression,  or  wedded  to  an 
appealing  and  singable  tune,  which  teach  a  theology 


36    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

or  even  a  morality  which  we  repudiate.  We  do  it, 
because  we  interpret  the  words.  By  use  of  the 
principle  of  interpretation  we  get  to  the  heart  of 
the  first  singer's  faith,  and  cast  aside  his  transient 
beliefs  and  dogmas.  We  love  especially  the 
**  heavenly  Jerusalem"  hymns,  though  other  world- 
liness  is  not  our  dominant  mood,  because  we  inter- 
pret them  into  promises  and  determinations  of  social 
reform. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  interpretation  is  not 
always  easy.  Sometimes  the  process  is  a  strain. 
We  endure  it,  because  of  the  gain  that  outweighs, 
and  which  is  the  sense  of  fellowship  with  past  ages 
which  the  persisting  words  supply,  because  of  the  in- 
spiration that  comes  through  realization  of  our  one- 
ness with  all  saints.  When  the  strain  is  too  great, 
then  we  cease  to  sing  the  hymn,  or  strive  for  amend- 
ment and  revision  of  the  form  of  words.  But  such 
cases  are  on  the  whole  few,  and  even  where  revision 
seems  most  imperative,  we  patiently  apply  our  prin- 
ciple, remembering  that  the  process  of  revision  is 
necessarily  slow,  where  the  whole  Christian  con- 
sciousness is  concerned. 


II 

A  second  principle  is  the  Principle  of  Rubrlca- 
tion.  This  principle  is  based  upon  the  fact  that  the 
rubric  is  not  a  law,  to  be  obeyed,  but  a  suggestion 
or  direction,  to  be  followed  when  applicable.  Fi- 
deUty  to  the  principle  consists  in  a  reasonable  fol- 
lowing of  directions  where  they  are  appropriate,  in 
distinction    from    a    blind    obedience    to    the   letter 


THREE  WORKING  PRINCIPLES      37 

which  killeth.  If  one  enters  the  great  gates  of  a 
park  he  may  discover  a  rubric,  or  sign  board,  which 
says,  "  Take  this  path  to  the  lion's  den."  The  form 
of  words  is  mandatory,  but  the  visitor  will  not  obey 
the  rubric  if  the  lion's  den  is  a  place  where  he  does 
not  wish  to  go.  We  are  not  to  be  misled  by  the 
mandatory  form  of  rubrics.  They  are  not  laws, 
requiring  obedience,  or  in  relation  to  which  obedi- 
ence is  a  virtue.  The  verb  "  shall "  in  a  rubric 
does  not  connote  an  order,  but  an  opportunity.  It 
makes  a  suggestion.  When  the  word  "  may " 
stands  in  its  place,  there  are  two  suggestions  of- 
fered, either  one  of  which  is  good,  the  choice  to 
be  determined  by  circumstances.  Much  difficulty 
might  be  avoided,  if  this  essential  nature  of  the 
rubric  were  always  remembered.  It  would  serve  to 
relieve  some  ministers  of  a  certain  false  pride  in 
"  always  obeying  the  rubrics,"  by  making  it  clear 
that  this  is  far  from  being  a  virtue.  It  is  obvious 
that  due  regard  to  their  intention,  and  genuine  ap- 
prehension of  the  genius  of  the  Prayer  Book,  will 
require  at  times  "  disobedience."  And  as  for  the 
people,  it  will  correct  an  unjustly  critical  attitude 
towards  a  minister  who  has  disregarded  a  rubric, 
and  substitute  for  it  satisfaction  in  the  fact  that  the 
leader  of  the  worship  is  intelligent,  and  knows  the 
value  and  purpose  of  rubrical  directions.  One  il- 
lustration will  suffice.  Let  us  suppose  that  the 
circumstances  of  a  congregation's  life  and  environ- 
ment make  the  one  service  of  Good  Friday  an  even- 
ing service.  The  strict  rubrical  provision  will  com- 
pel the  reading  of  the  two  lessons  for  Good  Friday 
evening.     But  these  are  appointed  on  the  assump- 


38    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

tion  that  the  morning  lessons,  and  epistle  and  gospel, 
have  been  read  and  heard.  This  is  not  the  case  in 
this  instance,  and  Good  Friday  demands,  if  it  de- 
mands anything,  that  the  people  hear  the  story  of 
the  cross.  The  minister  will  read  this.  He  will 
be  true  to  the  genius  of  the  Prayer  Book.  He  will 
disregard  the  rubric,  because  it  is  not  applicable. 
He  will  recognize  the  fact  that  in  this  case  dis- 
obedience is  the  truest  obedience. 

It  was  an  English  bishop  who  wrote :  "  I  long 
to  see  a  plain  recognition  of  the  fact  that  rubrics 
are  not  canons,  i.e.,  a  rubric  records  simply  how 
things  are  done  (i.e.,  unless  there  is  valid  reason  for 
some  other  course),  and  that  it  is  the  function  of 
a  canon  to  prescribe  how  things  shall  be  done." 
And  we  are  not  to  think  that  the  definition  con- 
tained in  his  words  is  merely  a  pious  wish,  rather 
than  a  statement  based  upon  historic  and  verifiable 
fact.  This  is  just  what  the  rubric  historically  is, — 
a  direction  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the  service. 
It  is  nevertheless  true  that  the  confusion  and  mis- 
understanding which  have  arisen  have  their  roots 
in  English  history.  Because  of  the  laws  of  con- 
formity, the  rubrics  in  England  have  become  acts 
of  Parliament,  and  therefore  laws.  We  in  America 
are  free  from  this  unfortunate  situation,  and  may 
vindicate  in  our  usage  the  rubric's  original  char- 
acter. At  the  same  time,  because  our  church  is 
descended  from  the  English,  it  has  come  to  pass 
that  included  among  the  rubrics  of  our  Prayer  Book, 
—  the  true  rubrics, —  are  certain  rubrics  which  are 
not  really  rubrics  at  all,  but  bits  of  canon  law. 
Such,  for  instance,  is  the  rubric  forbidding  the  use 


THREE  WORKING  PRINCIPLES      39 

of  the  Burial  Office  for  suicides, —  a  relic  of  medi- 
aeval casuistry.  Obviously,  the  presence  of  such 
rubrics  tends  to  obscure  the  rubric's  real  nature,  and 
to  militate  against  the  principle  of  rubrication.  It 
is  also  because  of  the  presence  of  rubrics  of  this 
nature  that  the  law  of  the  Church  recognizes  as 
an  offense  for  which  a  minister  may  be  tried  "  the 
violation  of  the  rubrics."  It  is  manifest  that  there 
could  be  no  such  thing  as  trial  for  the  violation  of 
a  true  rubric.  The  situation  presents  a  dilemma 
which  ought  to  be  frankly  stated.  It  might  seem 
desirable  to  remove  from  the  Book  of  Worship  all 
fragments  of  canon  law,  leaving  only  the  true  ru- 
brics. But,  on  the  other  hand,  to  put  such  frag- 
ments of  canon  law  in  the  law  book  would  deprive 
them  of  the  innocuous  character  they  now  enjoy, 
and  which  it  may  be  desirable  to  preserve.  As  it 
is,  they  necessarily  partake  of  the  rubric  character, 
and  may  be  open  to  such  following  as  is  properly 
given  to  rubrical  directions.  To  revert  to  the  il- 
lustration of  the  park,  there  may  exist  like  incon- 
sistencies there;  for  adjacent  to  the  rubric  con- 
cerning the  lion's  den  is  one  which  reads,  "  Keep 
off  the  grass,"  and  which,  if  representing  a  city  or- 
dinance, may  well  be  a  law. 

One  thing  is  certain.  The  American  Church 
has  an  opportunity  to  rehabilitate  and  emphasize  the 
true  rubric,  and  users  of  the  Prayer  Book  must 
build  upon  the  principle  of  rubrication,  which  is  a 
pledge  for  us  of  liberty  and  flexibility. 


40    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 


III 

The  third  principle  is  the  Principle  of  Liturgism. 
Liturgism  is  a  coined  word,  but  convenient  and  un- 
derstandable. It  is  designed  to  emphasize  the  fact 
that  users  of  the  Prayer  Book  to  be  intelligent  must 
remember  that  its  genius  is  that  it  supplies  an  in- 
strument of  worship  which  is  in  a  special  sense 
liturgical.  There  are  three  sorts  of  worship. 
There  is  the  "  free  worship  "  w^hich  characterizes 
the  Protestant  Communions  generally,  and  which 
emphasizes  the  "  word  "  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
"  act."  It  is  that  familiar  type  of  congregational 
service,  in  which  the  sermon  is  everything,  the 
other  parts  of  the  service  being  of  the  nature  of 
"  preliminary  exercises."  The  people  are  passive. 
They  are  ensconced  in  a  sitting  posture  for  the  pur- 
pose of  listening,  that  being  the  main  object  of  their 
gathering.  Theoretically,  the  parts  of  the  prelim- 
inary exercises  are  free,  in  that  they  are  not  ap- 
pointed or  ordered.  The  minister  reads  from  the 
"  Word  "  where  his  instinct,  or  momentary  choice, 
dictates.  He,  or  the  people,  "  start  "  a  hymn  of 
praise.  He,  or  they,  pray  as  the  spirit  moves,  out 
of  the  momentary  dictates  of  the  heart. 

There  is  the  "  ritualistic  worship,"  which  char- 
acterizes the  Church  of  Rome,  and  the  Orthodox 
Churches  of  Russia  and  the  East,  and  which  em- 
phasizes the  **  act  "  to  the  exclusion  of  the  "  word." 
The  important  thing  is  that  the  sacrifice  shall  be 
offered.  The  miracle  of  the  Mass  is  to  be  accom- 
plished.    The  bell  rings  to  announce  that  the  act 


THREE  WORKING  PRINCIPLES      41 

Is  done.  It  does  not  matter  that  the  words  which 
may  be  said  are  in  a  language  not  '^  understanded 
of  the  people."  It  does  not  matter  if  there  is  no 
sermon.  The  people  are  again  passive.  Their  part 
is  to  assist  by  their  presence.  In  Browning's  "  The 
Bishop  Orders  His  Tomb  at  St.  Praxed's,"  the 
Bishop  says: 

"  And  then  how  I  shall  lie  through  centuries 
And  hear  the  blessed  mutter  of  the  mass, 
And  see  God  made  and  eaten  all  day  long, 
And  feel  the  steady  candle-flame,  and  taste 
Good  strong  thick  stupefying  incense-smoke !  " 

This  suggests  the  ideal  of  the  ritualistic  service,  and 
emphasizes  its  materialistic  perils,  when  the  "  act  " 
is  made  supreme,  and  the  "  word  "  subordinated. 

The  third  sort  of  service,  which  is  the  normal 
service  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  is  the  *'  lit- 
urgical service."  Its  aim  is  to  emphasize  equally 
the  word  and  the  act,  maintaining  them  in  their 
due  proportion  as  complementary  one  to  the  other. 
It  seeks  to  avoid  the  vagaries  and  individualism  of 
the  "  free  service,"  with  its  loss  of  the  sense  of  the 
common  Christian  consciousness,  and  its  dangers 
of  cold  intellectualism,  and  irreverence,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  escape  the  formalities,  and  mindless- 
ness,  and  possible  materialism  and  irreverences  of 
the  "  ritualistic  service."  In  worship,  as  in  other 
ways,  the  Church  of  the  Prayer  Book  has  a  mission 
of  reconciliation.  It  has  a  "  via  media  "  ambition, 
and  strives  for  a  sanity  and  sweet-reasonableness 
in  worship,  which  shall  preserve  what  is  good  in  the 


42    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

ideals  of  both  the  Protestant  Communions,  and  the 
ancient  churches  of  Rome  and  the  East,  and  ex- 
plain them  to  one  another. 

Of  course,  an  epigrammatic  definition  such  as 
has  been  attempted  above  has  its  dangers  of  half- 
truth.  It  cannot  be  strictly  maintained  that  either 
the  free  or  ritualistic  service  Is  represented  with 
complete  fairness.  There  cannot  be,  obviously, 
complete  subordination  of  act  or  word,  either  In 
the  one  or  in  the  other.  But  there  Is  truth,  never- 
theless, In  the  attempted  distinction,  and  the  ideal 
and  method  of  the  Prayer  Book  are  made  sufficiently 
clear.  Liturgism  is,  when  all  is  said,  the  Prayer 
Book's  ambition;  and  an  understanding  of  this 
principle  is  a  boon  to  all  its  users,  who  would  use 
it  with  intelligence  and  effectiveness.  Within  the 
Prayer  Book  church,  It  is  of  course  true  that  there 
will  be  found,  at  times  and  places,  services  which 
are  purely  ritualistic,  or  purely  free.  But  even 
these  will  be  "  different,"  in  that  they  will  be 
molded  by  the  essential  norm  Into  reticence  and 
reasonableness.  Meantime,  in  the  general  usage 
of  the  Church,  the  services  are  consciously  and 
helpfully  liturgical.  They  are  liturgical  in  that  the 
people  are  active,  not  passive.  In  all  the  services 
of  the  congregation  the  people  have  a  constant  and 
vital  part.  Something  Is  all  the  time  expected  of 
them.  The  service  is  in  every  instance  theirs. 
Even  In  listening  to  the  word,  their  response  Is  an- 
ticipated and  provided  for,  and  at  every  phase  of 
praise  or  prayer,  their  attitude  of  participation  or 
response  Is  significant.  The  New  England  farmer 
who  testified  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  experience, 


THREE  WORKING  PRINCIPLES     43 

that  he  "  never  let  on,  but  riz  and  fell  every  time," 
paid  his  unconscious  tribute  to  the  excellence  of  a 
form  of  worship,  which  excluded  no  one,  and  was 
not  performed  for  lookers-on. 

The  careful  welding  of  word  and  act  together 
has  its  illustration  in  every  service.  The  Holy 
Communion,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  is  the  service 
wherein  the  act  has  its  strongest  emphasis,  and  that 
is  the  very  service  where  the  solemn  reading  of  the 
word,  in  the  Gospel,  has  special  prominence,  and 
the  only  service  in  which  there  is  special  provision 
for  the  sermon.  Moreover,  in  this  service,  too,  the 
acts  of  consecration  and  communion  are  enshrined 
in  a  form  which  is  preeminent  for  its  presentation 
of  the  great  truths  of  the  word,  in  repeated  se- 
quences of  supreme  significance,  in  Comfortable 
Words,  and  Sanctus,  in  Consecration  Prayer  and 
Gloria  in  Excelsis.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Daily 
Offices  of  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer,  while  em- 
phatically offices  of  the  word,  and  its  presentation, 
look  for  the  expressive  act  in  the  people's  kneeling 
and  standing,  and  formal  responses,  and  especially 
in  the  Creed  climax,  where  as  one  body  they  give 
the  sign  of  allegiance  and  loyalty. 

By  faithful  and  intelligent  adherence  to  these 
three  Working  Principles  of  Interpretation,  Rubri- 
cation  and  Liturgism,  the  people  enter  into  a  deeper 
understanding  of  the  riches  of  the  book,  and  its 
ever-unfolding  opportunities,  and  come  to  a  truer 
and  more  vital  using  of  its  services  in  their  worship. 


V 

MORNING    PRAYER   AND    EVENING    PRAYER 


THE  first  book  in  the  Library  of  our  Service 
books  contains  the  Order  for  Morning  and 
Evening  Prayer.  These  are  more  frequently  used 
than  any  other  of  our  services,  and  so  stand  in  the 
forefront. 

In  studying  these  we  must  say  something  of 
their  history:  because  in  Chapter  I  it  may  have 
seemed  as  if  the  philosophy  of  ritual  there  expressed 
implied  a  book  especially  compiled  to  set  forth 
these  ideas.  This  is  not  so.  The  idea  of  worship 
and  its  expression  set  forth  already  is  inherent  in 
all  human  nature  and  in  every  religion,  and  es- 
pecially in  Christianity  has  been  full  of  changes 
and  a  matter  of  growth.  Our  Book  of  Worship 
was  never  framed,  or  composed  —  it  grew.  And 
it  grew  in  the  persistent  effort  of  the  human  heart 
to  express  more  and  more  adequately  its  desire  for 
worship.  Our  services  of  Morning  and  Evening 
Prayer,  then,  are  only  a  stage  in  this  long  process, 
the  outcome  of  centuries  of  worship,  each  age  try- 
ing out  new  methods  and  using  the  experiments  of 
the  past.  They  are  the  compressed  expression  of 
the  Church's  life  of  worship  through  eighteen  cen- 
turies. 

44 


MORNING  AND  EVENING  PRAYER     45 

What  that  spirit  of  worship  is  we  have  seen  in 
Chapter  I,  and  in  Chapter  II  we  have  set  forth 
the  various  forms  into  which  it  has  flowed.  We 
come  now  after  discussing  some  general  principles 
to  the  twofold  task  of  tracing  the  growth  of  two 
of  these  services,  and  then  of  seeing  how  far  they 
fulfill  the  demands  of  our  hearts  when  we  come  to 
worship  God. 

The  Daily  Offices  have  their  roots  in  the  Syna- 
gogue worship  of  the  Jews,  just  as  our  Holy  Com- 
munion reaches  back  to  the  ritual  of  the  Temple. 
The  early  Christians  worshiped  still  in  the  Syna- 
gogue, and  the  reading  of  psalms  and  lessons  and 
the  prayers  was  familiar  to  them.  (James  2:2.) 
But  the  separation  must  have  come  early  and  by 
themselves  the  Christians  continued  the  simple 
form  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed.  The 
Lord's  Prayer  and  the  growing  creed  would  be 
said  in  unison  and  the  reading  of  portions  of  the 
scripture,  the  Old  Testament  first,  and  then  as  the 
years  went  on,  a  circular  letter  from  St.  Paul,  or 
St.  Peter,  or  a  fragment  of  St.  Mark's  Gospel,  as 
it  was  copied  and  handed  about,  would  be  read 
and  prayers  would  follow,  extemporaneous  or  more 
formal  and  pre-composed.  But  it  was  all  simple, 
and  the  worshipers  took  some  part.  It  was 
"  common  "  prayer.  Then  came  the  days  of  the 
monks,  when  the  times  and  the  trend  of  religion 
drove  so  many  men  from  the  active  life  of  the  world 
into  the  deserts  and  into  monasteries,  when  life 
was  cut  into  two  parts,  the  secular  and  the  sacred, 
and  the  latter,  the  so-called  "  religious,"  was  made 
into  a  life  of  constant  worship.     There  was  plenty 


46    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

of  time  and  little  to  do,  life's  wants  were  easily 
supplied,  and  so  the  monastic  life  performed  its 
necessary  duties  for  the  body  in  the  short  intervals 
between  the  services  of  the  hours.  (Ps.  55:18. 
Cf.  Ps.  119:  164).  The  whole  day  and  even  the 
night  were  turned  into  a  round  of  services.  Be- 
tween midnight  and  daybreak  there  was  the  service 
called  Nocturns  or  Matins,  with  Lauds  attached. 
At  six  came  Prime,  at  nine  Tierce,  and  noon  Sext, 
in  the  afternoon  at  three.  Nones,  about  six,  Ves- 
pers was  said,  and  the  round  closed  at  nine  o'clock 
by  saying  the  last  of  the  services,  called  Compline. 
These  services  were  long  and  repetitious,  dry  and 
formal.  They  continued  all  through  the  Middle 
Ages,  with  but  little  change. 

The  Christian  life  of  worship  had  been  expanded 
to  its  utmost.  Only  those  who  had  little  or  noth- 
ing else  to  do,  could  join  in  it.  It  was  no  longer 
"  common  "  prayer.  The  common  people  could 
have  no  part  in  it.  The  so-called  "  religious  "  had 
monopolized  common  worship  and  the  laity  only 
"  assisted  "  by  kneeling  at  the  celebration  of  the 
Mass.  If  they  attended  any  of  the  services  men- 
tioned above  and  which  were  contained  in  the 
book  called  the  Breviary,  they  could  understand 
nothing  that  was  said,  for  Latin  was  the  language 
used.  The  worship  of  God  had  become  not  only 
burdensome  but  unintelligible. 

At  the  time  of  the  Reformation  there  w^as  felt 
the  need,  not  only  of  purifying  these  old  forms  from 
false  doctrine,  but  of  simplifying  and  shortening 
them  and  of  putting  them  into  the  tongue  under- 
stood by  the  people.     The  priesthood  of  the  laity 


MORNING  AND  EVENING  PRAYER     47 

was  once  more  to  be  made  vocal  and  effective. 
The  men  of  the  Church  of  England  to  whom  we 
owe  our  Prayer  Book  undertook  this  work.  And 
characteristically,  in  obedience  to  the  spirit  of  their 
church  and  nation,  they  clung  to  all  that  was  good 
in  the  old  and  refused  to  set  forth  a  new  order  of 
worship.  As  their  church  was  not  a  new  creation, 
but  a  return  to  the  principles  and  polity  of  the 
Apostolic  times,  so  their  Book  of  Worship  was  to 
retain  all  that  the  worshiping  Church  had  de- 
veloped through  centuries  of  prayer  —  all  that  was 
good  in  it.  They  had  at  hand  the  Breviary,  with 
its  hours  of  devotion,  and  they  found  that  these 
could  easily  be  purified  and  compressed  and  simpli- 
fied, and  that  when  this  process  was  completed,  they 
had  in  their  hands,  the  same  expression  of  w^orship 
which  had  persisted  through  the  accretions  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  the  same  order  of  approach  to  God, 
the  result  of  the  experience  and  experiments  of 
centuries.  These  are  taken  up  into  the  structure 
and  very  words  of  our  Morning  and  Evening 
Prayer  and  made  vital  for  the  worship  of  millions 
to-day.  And  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  only 
in  our  Prayer  Book  do  these  appear  in  living  form 
to-day.  No  other  church  has  done  this  work.  Ex- 
cept as  recited  in  Latin  by  the  Roman  priests  of 
to-day,  a  task  they  are  compelled  to  fulfill  and  which 
is  fulfilled  by  rapid  reading  each  for  himself,  in 
the  course  of  the  day,  no  church  but  ours  carries 
out  by  daily  use  the  spirit  and  order  of  the  old 
Breviar>%  The  Breviary,  as  the  people's  book,  is 
dead.  The  Breviary,  as  forming  Book  I  of  our 
Prayer  Book,  is  alive  and  still  growing.     All  that 


48    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

Christian  men  in  the  past  had  found  necessary  to 
express  when  they  came  to  worship  God,  is  here 
retained,  in  order  and  largely  in  word.  Our  re- 
formers believed  that  the  Church,  through  long 
practice,  had  developed  an  almost  perfect  scheme 
of  worship,  and  they  were  wise  enough  to  retain 
it.  Cranmer  and  his  fellow-workers  took  the  seven 
hour  devotions  and  out  of  the  morning  hours, 
Nocturns  or  Matins,  Lauds  and  Prime,  framed  our 
Morning  Prayer,  and  out  of  the  evening  hours. 
Vespers  and  Compline,  made  our  Evening  Prayer, 
so  that  what  used  to  take  the  larger  part  of  both 
night  and  day,  now  could  be  said  in  an  hour  and 
a  half.  They  have  given  us  the  compressed  form 
of  a  life  of  constant  worship  extending  over  eighteen 
centuries.  Thus  the  book  we  are  studying  is 
plainly  an  evolution  and  not  something  framed  to 
fit  a  theory  of  worship. 

"  The  Prayer  Book  as  it  stands  is  a  long  gal- 
lery of  Ecclesiastical  history  which,  to  be  under- 
stood and  enjoyed  thoroughly,  absolutely  compels  a 
knowledge  of  the  greatest  events  and  names  of  all 
periods  of  the  Christian  Church. 

"  To  Ambrose  we  owe  our  Te  Deum,  Charle- 
magne breaks  the  silence  of  our  Ordination 
Prayer  by  the  Veni  Creator  Spiritus.  The  perse- 
cutions have  given  us  one  creed,  the  Empire  an- 
other. The  name  of  the  first  great  patriarch  of 
the  Byzantine  Church  closes  our  daily  service. 
The  Litany  is  the  bequest  of  the  first  great  patriarch 
of  the  Latin  Church  am^st  the  terrors  of  the 
Roman  pestilence.  Our  Collects  are  the  joint  pro- 
duction  of   Fathers,    Popes   and   Reformers.     Our 


MORNING  AND  EVENING  PRAYER     49 

Communion  Service  bears  the  traces  of  every  fluctu- 
ation of  the  Reformation,  through  the  two  ex- 
tremes of  the  reign  of  Edward  to  the  conciliatory 
policy  of  Elizabeth  and  the  revolutionary  zeal  of 
the  Restoration."     Stanley. 


II 

But  our  purpose  is  not  historical.  Most  works 
on  the  Prayer  Book  are  concerned  chiefly  either 
with  its  history  or  with  minute  explanation  of  its 
parts,  to  its  very  phraseology.  To  some  of  these 
the  reader  is  referred  in  the  note  at  the  end  of 
this  chapter. 

We  are  concerned  with  the  worshipful  atti- 
tude and  its  expression  in  word  and  act  in  the 
Prayer  Book.  What  is  it  that,  as  we  have  set 
forth  already  in  Chapter  I,  should  be  found  in  the 
expression  of  the  soul's  worship?  Praise.  There 
are  other  feelings  to  be  expressed,  but  praise  is  the 
highest  and  dominates  all.  To  approach  God  and 
get  any  glimpse  of  his  Being  and  glory  is  to  burst 
forth  into  praise.  This  aspect  is  the  most  promi- 
nent one  in  the  ancient  Hours.  They  are  built  on 
the  principle  of  Praise,  they  center  in  the  saying  or 
singing  of  the  Psalms,  so  that  another  name  for 
the  Breviary  is  "  Psalterium."  The  services  for 
Matins  and  Prime  began  with  the  Invocation,  *'  In 
the  Name  "  etc.,  then  came  the  Lord's  Prayer  with 
its  doxology,  and  then  the  Versicle,  *'  O  Lord, 
open,"  and  the  response,  "  and  our  mouth  "  etc., 
and  the  Gloria,  "  Praise  ye  the  Lord  "  and  "  The 
Lord's  Name  be  praised,"  and  then  the  Venite,  the 


50    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

great  invitatory  to  praise,  '*  O  come,  let  us  sing 
unto  the  Lord:  let  us  heartily  rejoice,"  etc.  This 
was  followed  by  the  Psalter,  a  selection  of  only 
twelve  Psalms  with  their  antiphons  and  glorias. 
This  is  the  heart  of  our  own  two  services,  as  it 
should  be.  It  is  the  way  that  men  have  always 
approached  the  Christian's  God.  But  the  fram- 
ers  of  our  Book  have  added  more  praise.  Instead 
of  reciting  daily  or  weekly  only  a  dozen,  or  on 
Sunday  eighteen  Psalms,  they  have  given  us  the 
whole  Psalter  in  the  course  of  the  month,  and  so 
in  time  every  aspect  of  praise  is  put  into  our 
mouths. 

The  Psalms  are  thus  the  dominant  element  in 
our  worship.  They  dominate  all  the  others,  con- 
fession of  sin,  hearing  God's  word,  profession  of 
faith,  and  pra^-er,  all  these  are  taken  up  and  ap- 
propriated and  fused  by  the  overpowering  outpour- 
ing of  praise.  "  Thou  art  worthy,  O  Lord,  to  re- 
ceive glory  and  honor  and  power."  In  this  spirit 
the  framers  of  our  book  were  not  afraid  to  sound 
at  its  very  beginning  the  note  of  penitence.  And 
so  they  took  the  Confession  and  Absolution  from 
the  end  of  the  old  services,  where  it  was  wont  to 
refer  to  the  imperfection  of  the  congregation's  wor- 
ship, personal  confession,  being  then  private  and 
auricular,  and  so  having  no  place  in  public  worship, 
and  put  these  in  the  forefront  with  verses  from 
God's  word  and  an  Exhortation  as  to  the  worship 
which  follows.  Because  in  the  light  of  God's 
presence  we  first  see  ourselves  as  we  really  are, 
and  that  is  penitence.  Only  on  our  knees  can  we 
begin  to  praise  God,  and  after  we  have  confessed 


MORNING  AND  EVENING  PRAYER     51 

our  sin  and  begged  for  forgiveness  and  heard  it 
freely  given  to  such  as  ask  for  it  humbly,  can  we 
be  fit  and  ready  to  stand  on  our  feet  and  praise. 
Only  then  do  we  personally  feel  the  goodness  and 
mercy  of  God, —  how  worthy  he  is.  Then  our 
book  commands  us  to  stand,  invites  us  to  praise 
in  the  Venite,  and  puts  the  words  of  the  glorious 
Psalms  in  our  mouths. 

But  the  more  we  know  of  God,  the  more  we 
shall  be  moved  to  praise  him.  The  service  of 
Matins  had  a  lesson  consisting  of  three  or  nine 
short  passages,  and  Lauds  and  Prime  had  a  short 
chapter  and  these  were  each  followed  by  a  burst  of 
praise,  the  former  by  Te  Deum,  "  We  praise  thee, 
O  Lord,"  and  the  latter  by  the  Benedictus, 
"  Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of  Israel." 

And  so,  bodily,  this  next  stage  of  worship  has 
been  incorporated  into  our  Book.  And  here  again 
its  compilers  have  generously  given  us  more  than 
the  old  monks  would.  Instead  of  short  selections, 
with  many  repetitions  and  with  bits  from  the  lives 
of  the  Saints,  they  have  given  us,  as  with  the 
Psalter,  the  whole  of  God's  words  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  The  Lectionary  gives  us  in  daily  por- 
tions every  word  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the 
course  of  the  year,  and  the  New  Testament  twice 
over,  and  the  more  we  hear  of  God,  the  more  we 
desire  to  praise  him.  The  natural  desire  of  the 
mind,  after  listening  to  the  revelation  which  God 
has  made  of  himself,  is  to  gather  up  this  knowledge 
into  some  form  which  will  express  our  faith.  And 
so  we  use  here  the  Apostles'  Creed,  not  a  com- 
plete statement  but  a  symbol  of  our  Faith,  collect- 


52    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

ing  in  a  few  short  articles  the  essentials,  on  which 
our  praise  rests,  and  which  give  us  our  confidence 
to  approach  God  in  pra5er,  which  we  are  now 
ready  to  do  at  the  close  of  our  worship.  The 
prayers  begin  with  the  Collect  for  the  Day,  thereby 
connecting  the  Divine  Office,  as  our  two  services 
used  to  be  called,  with  the  Divine  Liturgy,  or 
Office  of  Holy  Communion;  the  other  name  for 
which  and  that  which  best  describes  its  character, 
is  "  The  Eucharist,"  which  means  **  giving  of 
thanks."  The  two  are  only  different  expressions 
of  our  praise. 

Then  come  the  prayers,  which  are  mostly  in- 
tercessions. These  are  collected  from  the  three 
early  offices,  Matins,  contributing  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  which  has  been  used  earlier,  Lauds,  the 
Collect  for  the  Day,  and  the  Collect  for  Peace 
and  Prime  giving  us  the  Collect  for  Grace.  Here 
the  old  service  ended.  But  our  compilers  once 
more  added,  perfectly  in  the  spirit  of  the  old  forms, 
the  prayer  for  All  in  Authority,  typifying  the  Na- 
tion, and  those  for  the  clergy,  typifying  the 
Church,  and  for  All  Conditions  of  Men,  adding, 
still  in  the  spirit  of  praise,  the  General  Thanksgiv- 
ing and  closing  with  the  beautiful  prayer  of  St. 
Chrysostom,  and  the  Grace  in  St.  Paul's  words  to 
the  Corinthians. 

The  service  of  Evening  Prayer  is  naturally  as- 
similated to  the  Morning  Prayer.  It  is  taken 
from  the  Hours  for  Vespers  and  Compline  which 
each  began  at  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  were  each 
rich  in  the  recitation  of  the  Psalter.  Vespers  had 
a  lesson  from  the  Old  Testament,  followed  by  the 


MORNING  AND  EVENING  PRAYER     53 

Magnificat,  while  Compline  had  a  lesson  from  the 
New  Testament,   followed  by  Nunc  Ditnittis. 

Again  the  compilers  having  kept  the  spirit  of 
praise,  prefix  opening  invitatory  sentences,  an  ex- 
hortation, or  description  of  the  order  of  the  service 
to  follow ;  the  general  confession  and  absolution 
and  the  closing  prayers  after  the  Creed  are,  in  the 
main,  like  those  in  the  morning,  only  the  Prayer 
for  Peace  is  not  now  for  outward  peace  from 
enemies  and  adversaries,  but  that  inward  peace 
of  the  heart,  which  the  world  cannot  give,  and 
the  next  prayer  is  not  for  grace  and  guidance 
through  the  day,  but  for  protection  during  the 
helpless  hours  of  the  night. 


Ill 

The  two  officers  are,  it  will  be  noticed,  exactly 
similar  in  outline.  What  we  may  call  the  *'  wor- 
shipful content,"  or  that  which  makes  the  service 
an  efficient  vehicle  of  worship,  is  in  each  case  the 
same.  The  service  presents  an  inevitable  process, 
and  a  satisfying  progress,  in  accordance  with  what 
is,  as  it  were,  a  natural  history  of  worship.  The 
great  steps  of  the  progress  are  five.  Coming  into 
the  Presence,  entering  expectant  into  God  the  Fa- 
ther's house,  the  worsliiper's  first  instinct  of  un- 
worthiness  finds  expression  in  the  confession  of  sin, 
led  up  to  by  exhortation,  and  culminating  in  the 
declaration  of  absolution,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
to  which  the  Absolution  serves  as  a  bidding.  The 
second  inevitable  and  natural  instinct  is  to  give 
thanks  to  the  Father  for  his  manifold   gifts,  and 


54    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

this  finds  expression  in  repeated  songs  of  praise, 
in  Venite  or  Psalms,  in  first  and  second  canticles. 
A  third  instinct,  or  desire,  upon  entering  the  Pres- 
ence is  to  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  the  lis- 
tening soul  is  satisfied  by  the  lections  from  Old 
and  New  Testaments  which  alternate  with  the 
expressions  of  praise.  The  worshipers  then  come, 
united  as  they  are  in  and  through  their  corporate 
experiences  of  confession,  praise  and  listening,  to 
the  climax  of  the  service,  the  great  gateway  of  the 
Creed,  the  symbol  of  their  common  faith,  the 
pledge  of  their  unswerving  loyalty,  through  which 
they  enter  the  final  part  of  the  service,  the  enjoy- 
ment of  communion,  the  untrammeled  outpouring 
of  their  souls  in  petition,  intercession  and  thanks- 
giving to  the  Father  of  all. 

It  is  this  unfaltering  rightness  of  the  order,  this 
genius  of  the  service,  which  furnishes  the  answer 
to  the  question  which  every  user  of  the  Prayer 
Book  must  ask  himself  —  What  is  it  which  makes 
this  service,  which  commands  my  admiration  and  my 
love,  a  great  service?  For  that  it  is  great  we  in- 
stinctively feel,  and  of  this  excellence  which  makes 
the  service  a  great  expression  of  worship  we  are 
even  ready  to  boast.  We  know  that  it  is  not 
merely  because  the  form  is  ancient,  or  contains 
much  Scripture,  or  chances  to  meet  our  habitual 
moods.  We  see  the  ground  of  its  beauty  and 
power  in  the  unity  and  progress  of  its  structure, 
and  in  its  worshipful  reasonableness. 

Note.  Supplementing  what  was  said  in  Chap- 
ter II  about  the  five  books  which  are  now  bound 
into  one  in  our  Pra5^er  Book,   it  is  important  to 


MORNING  AND  EVENING  PRAYER     55 

note  that  there  is  one  still  left  outside.  While 
our  Hymnal  is  sometimes  closely  attached  to  the 
Prayer  Book  by  its  binding,  it  is  a  separate  book. 
And  yet  it  is  one  of  our  books  of  worship.  It  is 
the  expression  of  our  praise  through  music,  the 
setting  of  lyrical  songs  so  that  the  congregation 
may  praise  God  musically  in  unison.  Thus  the 
principle  of  praise  is  still  further  carried  out  and 
we  generally  begin  and  end  our  Morning  and 
Evening  Services  with  the  singing  of  a  hymn.  We 
now  have  incorporated  in  the  Prayer  Book,  as  one 
of  its  five  books,  the  Psalter,  or  Jewish  Hymn  Book. 
It  is  conceivable  that  some  day  there  might  be  in- 
corporated there  the  Christian  Hymn  Book,  which 
ought  to  be  that  body  of  hymns  which  forms  the 
invariable  element  in  all  hymnals,  and  is  the  uni- 
versal hymnody  of  Christendom. 

SUGGESTED  READING 

Barry:     Teacher's  Prayer  Book.     (Am,  Ed.) 

Proctor  and  Frere:  A  New  History  of  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon  Prayer. 

Daniel :  The  Prayer  Book ;  Its  History,  Language  and 
Contents. 

Pullan:     The  History  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

Dearmer:     Everyman's  History  of  the  Prayer  Book. 

Hart:    The  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 


VI 

THE   LITANY 


THE  Litany  is  in  a  peculiar  and  impressive 
sense  the  people's  service.  In  this  fact  rests 
its  claim  upon  the  constant  affection  of  Christian 
congregations.  It  is  through  the  full  recognition 
of  this  quality  in  it  that  we  are  to  understand  its 
preeminent  place  among  those  great  offices  of  de- 
votion which  are  the  recognized  instruments  of  the 
people's  worship. 

That  it  belongs  in  a  special  sense  to  the  people 
is  made  very  clear  by  a  consideration  of  its  his- 
toric uses.  It  is  the  service  which  leaves  the  re- 
moter sanctuary,  and  the  place  of  the  high  altar, 
and  comes  down  to  linger  in  procession  in  the  midst 
of  the  kneeling  congregation.  More  than  that,  it 
goes  out  through  the  Church's  open  door,  and 
walks  the  familiar  streets  of  traffic.  It  passes  close 
to  the  doors  of  the  homes,  and  the  humblest  of 
them,  where  the  people  dwell,  and  winds  its  way 
among  the  fields  where  they  toil,  mingling  itself 
with  all  the  intimacies  of  their  daily  experience. 

It  is  said  that  the  Litany  form  had  its  origin  in 
the  time  which  followed  upon  the  break-up  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  and  that  it  was  the  invention  of 
56 


THE  LITANY  57 

Bishop  Mamertus,  whose  soul  was  burdened  by 
the  needs  and  distresses  of  his  day,  when  moral 
degradations  and  excesses  were  emphasized  by  the 
occurrence  of  earthquakes,  pestilences  and 
droughts.  There  must  be  a  new  form,  he  felt, 
for  "  drawing  down  the  mercy  of  God."  It  was  a 
similar  need,  in  the  exigencies  of  the  Reformation 
and  the  convulsions  of  that  age,  which  urged  the 
setting  forth  of  our  English  Litany.  There  were 
many  varying  forms  of  Litany,  which  sprang  up  in 
different  times  and  places,  but  the  general  manner 
and  outline  are  the  same,  and  our  Litany  retains 
a  place  of  preeminence,  just  because  it  has  grown 
into  its  present  outline  through  accretions  and  ad- 
ditions which  have  sprung  spontaneously  out  of  re- 
curring experiences  of  human  needs.  It  is  the 
people's,  because  it  goes  out  among  them  and  their 
deepest  needs,  and  because  through  it  the  people 
reach  out  of  themselves  to  lay  hold  upon  God's 
mercy  and  deliverance. 

Furthermore,  it  is  close  to  the  heart  of  the 
people,  because  after  its  opening  invocations  to  the 
Triune  God,  it  is  consistently,  from  beginning  to 
end,  from  the  appeals  to  "  the  precious  blood  "  of 
the  first  suffrage,  through  the  appeal  to  his  promise 
to  be  present  with  the  "  two  or  three,"  even  to  the 
end  of  the  world,  of  St.  Chrysostom's  prayer,  a 
prayer  to  Christ.  It  keeps  close  to  the  heart  of 
the  Elder  Brother.  It  gives  every  one,  the  un- 
worthiest  and  the  most  hesitant,  a  chance  to  be 
included,  because  of  the  assurance  that  he  who 
was  tempted  like  as  we  are  understands.  It  lays 
fast  hold  of  the  Humanity  of  God. 


58    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

Finally,  in  its  form  and  method,  it  expects  and 
requires  the  constant  participation  of  the  people 
themselves.  It  is  not  done  for  them,  as  if  a  sacrifice 
by  a  priest.  It  is  not  prayed  for  them,  by  a  minister 
however  truly  their  leader,  or  by  one  who  repre- 
sents, however  welcome,  or  trusted,  or  sympathetic 
his  representation.  It  is  prayed  by  themselves.  As 
an  actual  fact,  throughout  the  service,  the  prayer 
utterance  is  in  the  mouths  of  the  people.  The 
minister  recites  the  needs,  but  it  is  the  people  who 
pray  the  prayer.  The  people's  voices  are  for- 
ever the  dominant  and  all-embracing  note. 


II 

But  there  is  something  still  deeper,  which  forms 
the  basis  of  the  service's  power  and  appeal.  We 
ought  to  expect  that  a  form  of  service  which  has 
so  long  endured  in  the  affection  of  the  people,  and 
which  has  p^-ovided  them  with  so  potent  a  vehicle 
for  worship,  would  possess  in  the  very  genius  of 
the  service  itself  an  explanation  of  its  power.  It 
challenges  us  to  find  an  answer  to  the  question  as 
to  what  is  the  "  worshipful  content "  which  ex- 
plains its  greatness.  "  This  is  a  great  service," 
say  the  people.  ''  We  love  it."  What  is  it  that 
makes  it  great?  Let  us  try  to  answer  that  ques- 
tion, that  understanding,  we  may  love  it  the  more, 
and  use  it  the  better. 

The  answer  is  that  it  unites  in  a  wonderful  way 
the  two  primal  instincts  of  prayer.  These  are 
what  we  may  call  "  the  right  of  petition,"  and 
*'  the  rest  in  God."     If  prayer  be  prayer,  then  may 


THE  LITANY  59 

we  bring  to  God  all  our  needs,  as  children  ask  their 
father  for  what  they  want,  without  stinting  and 
without  hesitation.  We  do  not  know  if  we  shall 
get  that  for  which  we  ask,  or  if  it  is  best  that  we 
should  have  it.  We  know  that  we  may  ask,  and 
that  it  is  good  for  us,  and  for  God  (may  we  not 
say?)  that  there  should  be  this  asking.  Therefore 
we  bring  all  our  fears  in  the  face  of  Nature's  ter- 
rors, or  of  man's  cruelties;  and  all  our  wishes  for 
the  welfare  of  those  dear  to  us,  in  their  sicknesses 
and  sorrows,  their  misfortunes  and  lonelinesses, 
their  great  experience  in  child-bearing,  and  in  con- 
flict, and  in  dangerous  adventure.  It  is  this  primal 
instinct  in  prayer  which  is  met  by  the  piled  up 
petitions  of  the  suffrages,  with  their  insistence  of 
need  and  their  haunting  rhythm. 

And  the  other  instinct  is  supplied  by  the  constant 
refrain  of  the  "  Good  Lord,"  singing  its  way 
through  the  whole,  as  it  weaves  itself  in  and  out 
in  the  progress  of  the  prayer,  and  reassures  the 
heart  in  its  confidence  in  God.  The  instinct  of 
*'  rest  in  God "  has  not  need  for  many  words. 
Sometimes  It  requires  only  silence,  and  rest  in 
the  thought  of  him,  and  openness  of  soul.  If  there 
be  a  word,  as  in  this  people's  service,  for  the  as- 
surance of  heart  to  heart,  It  is  only  the  one  word 
that  is  required,  said  over  and  over  again  to  the 
soul's  refreshing,  of  "  the  goodness  of  the  Lord." 

Sometimes,  It  is  to  be  feared,  the  gist  of  the  mat- 
ter is  obscured  or  forgotten,  when  the  mind  or 
voice  stresses  the  other  part  of  the  response,  the 
''  deliver  us,"  or  the  "  we  beseech  thee  to  hear 
us,"  which  is  not  to  be  stressed  at  all,  but  is  only 


6o    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

the  formal  prayer-expression.  It  Is  this  false  em- 
phasis which  leads  some  at  times  to  imagine  that 
the  Litany  is  a  process  of  wresting  from  an  un- 
willing God  the  blessings  which  in  reality  he  waits 
to  give. 

Even  if  it  be  historically  true  that  the  thought 
of  inventing  a  method  of  wresting  mercy  from 
God  lay  at  the  heart  of  the  Litany's  origin,  we 
must  not  forget  that  the  inventors  builded  better 
than  they  knew.  Nor  must  we  forget  that  succeed- 
ing ages  of  Litany  users  have  by  their  interpreta- 
tion filled  the  great  prayer  with  its  deeper  and 
truer  meaning.  Indeed,  in  the  very  prayer  forms 
themselves  we  have  a  right  to  find  and  feel  a 
meaning  more  original  than  their  origin.  The 
word  ''  deliver  us  "  means  '*  set  us  free,"  and  in 
it  our  hearts  speak,  not  a  last  resort  in  our  despair 
to  God's  possible  mercy,  but  a  laying  hold  on  that 
liberty  which  is  the  heritage  of  the  sons  of  God. 
In  like  manner  the  prayer  utterance  of  the  people, 
''  we  beseech  thee  to  hear  us,"  is  not  a  hesitating 
approach  to  our  Lord's  possibly  unwilling  atten- 
tion, but  our  glad  and  confident  claim  upon  him 
whose  concern  for  our  needs  we  know  beforehand, 
upon  One  who  heareth  prayer,  and  to  whom  all 
flesh  shall  come. 

The  purpose  here  is  merely  to  indicate  and  make 
clear  this  underlying  idea  of  the  whole  service.  It 
is  this  combination  of  the  two  primal  instincts  of 
prayer  which  constitutes  its  genius,  and  which  ex- 
plains the  fact  of  its  being  so  great  an  instrument 
of  worship. 


THE  LITANY  6i 


III 

With  this  principle  in  mind,  one  may  approach 
each  part  of  the  service  with  new  appreciation,  and 
especiall}^  find  new  beauties  in  its  changing  phases, 
which  save  it  from  undue  monotony,  and  furnish 
it  with  fresh  and  inspiring  surprises,  or  terms  of 
thought.  The  remembrance  of  its  inherent  princi- 
ple and  source  of  power  will  illuminate  its  opening 
section  of  seven  "  deprecations "  or  prayers  for 
"  deliverance  from,"  with  its  two  "  obsecrations," 
or  recollections  of  the  meaning  of  Christ's  whole 
life  for  us,  and  will  fill  with  understanding  and 
satisfaction  the  section  which  follows  of  seven  plus 
ten  ''  intercessions,"  with  the  closing  "  lesser  lit- 
any," and  culminating  Lord's  Prayer,  of  the  Lit- 
any's main  division.  And  it  will  give  added  value 
to  the  second  section,  sometimes  called  the  *'  war 
section,"  with  its  versicles  and  responses,  its  an- 
tiphon,  and  its  prayers. 


VII 

THE    HOLY   COMMUNION 


THAT  the  service  of  the  Holy  Communion  is 
the  chief  of  all  the  services  of  the  congre- 
gation is  universally  acknowledged  by  the  people  of 
the  church.  Its  preeminence  is  equally  recognized 
by  those  who  urge  its  frequent  use,  and  by  those 
who  would  reserve  it  for  less  frequent  and  there- 
fore more  impressive  and  better  prepared-for  oc- 
casions. Why  is  it  thus  esteemed  the  great,  the 
culminating  service  and  act  of  worship  ? 

The  attempt  to  answer  this  question  will  lead  us 
on  our  way  to  an  understanding  of  its  supreme  ap- 
peal, and  to  a  clear  apprehension  of  its  genius  as  an 
instrument  of  worship. 

The  first  answer,  and  the  one  which  possesses 
perhaps  the  most  immediate  and  general  recogni- 
tion, is  that  it  is  the  service  ordained  by  Christ 
himself.  In  seeking  expression  in  \^orship  for  our 
sense  of  loyalty  to  him,  there  can  be  no  more  ob- 
vious and  simple  way  than  the  way  of  obedience  to 
his  express  command.  It  is  certainly  true  that 
many  of  his  followers,  with  no  ven»^  clear  notion 
of  the  Master's  intention  or  purpose,  and  with  no 
thought-out  estimate  of  the  inherent  value  of  the 
62 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION  63 

sacrament  itself,  give  themselves  in  humility  and 
trust  to  the  simple  carrying  out  of  his  sacred 
charge, — "  Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me."  No 
analysis  of  Gospel  records,  with  an  alleged  redis- 
covery of  the  original  Gospel,  and  of  the  Master's 
mind  the  night  before  his  death,  can  serve  to  shake 
the  universal  Christian  consciousness  that  there  was 
intent  to  leave  with  his  followers  an  obligation  to 
a  Memorial  Service  of  fellowship.  It  is  well  that 
is  so.  The  motive  of  obedience  is  a  potent  one,  and 
the  service  which  enshrines  this  participation  in  the 
Master's  will,  through  obedience  and  remembrance, 
must  necessarily  be  supreme. 


There  is  a  further  reason  in  the  constant  observ- 
ance of  the  Church  from  the  beginning.  To  this 
all  ancient  records,  within  the  New  Testament,  and 
beyond  it,  give  eloquent  testimony.  The  stary  of 
the  liturgies  of  all  the  churches,  in  their  infinite 
richness  and  variety,  speaks  of  the  persistence  of 
the  great  service,  and  of  the  sense  of  sacred  obli- 
gation with  which  the  followers  of  Christ  gather 
for  the  supper  of  their  Lord.  This  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses through  all  the  ages  presents  in  itself  an  in- 
escapable appeal  to  the  Christians  of  to-day.  The 
sense  of  the  great  company,  not  only  of  those  drawn 
together  throughout  the  world  of  this  present  time, 
but  gathered  from  all  generations  and  centuries, 
urges  the  souls  of  men  to  lay  hold  upon  this  bond 
of  union,  and  to  become  partakers  in  the  universal 
fellowship  which  is  the  Communion  of  Saints.     It 


64    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

is  an  urgent  and  compelling  call  that  the  supper 
be  furnished  with  guests,  and  the  disciple  knows 
that  the  faithful  of  all  ages  and  lands  are  expecting 
until  his  place  be  filled.  The  invitation  echoes 
from  countless  lips,  "  This  do  in  remembrance  of 
me, —  in  remembrance  of  him." 


Ill 

But  in  itself  the  observance  possesses  the  elements 
of  an  inevitable  greatness.  It  is  instinct  with 
genius  for  the  realizing  within  men's  souls  of  the 
final  facts  of  the  spiritual  life.  Partaking  together 
of  the  common  food  is  the  very  method  of  individual 
and  corporate  life.  The  material  side  of  it  gives 
it  power  because  we  are  in  very  deed  tabernacled  in 
the  flesh.  It  is  the  testimony  of  age-long  human 
experience  that  no  other  act  can  compare  with 
the  partaking  together  of  the  bread  of  life,  in  es- 
tablishing and  cementing  that  communion  with  the 
life  of  God  and  with  the  life  of  man,  without 
which  we  cannot  live.  Had  Christ  himself  not 
instituted  the  Lord's  Supper,  then  must  his  fol- 
lowers have  perforce  forthwith  instituted  it,  since 
their  life  with  him  and  with  one  another  demands 
it. 

The  two  names  by  which  the  sacrament  is  most 
commonlv  and  universally  designated  are  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  the  Holy  Communion,  and 
these  names  are  equally  expressive  of  the  genius 
and  method  of  the  great  service,  and  testify  to  its 
preeminence.  Each  name  is  of  two  words.  One 
word  is  not  sufficient,  because  what  is  demanded  is 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION  65 

a  combination  of  intimacy  and  mystery,  and  this 
combination  eacli  name  supplies.  The  soul  requires 
in  its  culminating  act  of  worship  the  opportunity 
of  intimacy.  It  must  make  and  keep  connection 
with  the  most  familiar  and  constant  things  of  life. 
Its  feet  must  be  upon  the  ground.  It  must  also 
possess  the  immediacy  of  approach  to  things  divine. 
It  demands  to  lay  hold  upon  the  ultimate  mystery. 
In  its  very  expression  it  must  have  to  do  with 
things  inexpressible  and  unutterable.  The  names 
give  form  to  these  two  equally  insistent  demands. 
There  is  nothing  more  intimate,  homely,  or  fa- 
miliar than  a  supper.  But  it  is  the  Lord's  supper. 
There  is  nothing  more  intimate  and  familiar,  more 
essential  to  living,  than  communion  or  fellowship. 
The  ultimate  horror  for  the  human  soul  is  soli- 
tude. But  it  is  the  Holy  Communion.  Its  very 
title  helps  us  to  an  understanding  of  the  fact  that 
this  service  is  our  culminating  and  supreme  act  of 
worship. 

IV 

There  is  a  further  question  for  users  of  the 
Prayer  Book.  Why  is  the  Communion  Service  of 
that  book  so  great  and  satisfying  an  instrument  of 
worship, —  so  worthy  a  vehicle  for  the  supreme  ob- 
servance ? 

The  service  itself,  as  we  hold  it  in  our  hands 
to-day,  is  the  descendant  of  a  long  line  of  ancient 
liturgies.  It  has  taken  up  into  itself  a  vast  and 
sacred  experience  in  Christian  worship.  This  is 
much  in  itself. 

When  we  come  to  study  these  ancient  liturgies, 


66    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

one  thing  at  least  becomes  plain,  and  that  is  that 
each  one  is  composed  of  parts.  There  are,  for  in- 
stance, two  parts  which  may  be  universally  recog- 
nized. The  names  of  these  are  familiar  to  students 
of  the  subject,  the  pro-anaphora,  and  the  anaphora, 
or  the  ordinary  of  the  mass,  and  the  canon  of  the 
mass.  In  a  word,  these  two  parts  represent  a 
preparatory  service,  and  the  service,  or  celebration 
of  the  sacrament  itself.  Still  a  third  part  becomes 
recognizable  at  certain  times  or  under  certain  con- 
ditions, and  this  is  the  Communion,  that  is  the 
partaking  by  the  people  of  the  offered  sacrifice. 
There  is  a  possibility,  and  in  certain  cases,  a  tend- 
ency, to  make  these  parts  not  only  separable,  but 
separate.  The  pro-anaphora,  or  ordinary  of  the 
mass,  or  the  ante-Communion,  may  be  severed  by 
an  interval,  or  inserted  hymn,  from  the  real  serv- 
ice which  follows.  It  may  be  used  by  itself.  It  is 
of  possible  edification  to  outsiders,  who  are  not  as 
yet  of  the  number  of  the  faithful.  It  may  con- 
ceivably be  used  on  the  day  before,  as  a  serv^ice  by 
itself  of  preparation  for  to-morrow's  sacrament. 
In  like  manner,  the  Communion  of  the  people,  if 
this  Communion  is  infrequent,  and  if  it  is  esteemed 
unessential,  the  offering  of  the  sacrifice  being  the 
one  necessary  celebration  of  the  feast,  may  be 
relegated  to  a  subordinate  place  of  occasional  oc- 
currence. 

But  it  is  the  genius  of  our  Prayer  Book  service 
to  make  clear,  wliile  the  service  has  parts,  that 
these  parts  are  not  detachable,  but  are  parts  of  a 
whole,  are  parts  \\hose  significance  consists  in  em- 
phasizing and  realizing  the  whole. 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION  67 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  parts  of  the  service,  as 
it  stands  in  our  book  to-day,  are  three.  They  may 
be  designated  as  a  series  of  Approaches,  in  order  by 
means  of  a  series,  to  make  it  clear  that  the  one 
great  service  all  through  is  presented  as  an  Ap- 
proach to  the  Presence.  Herein  rest  the  reasonable- 
ness and  beauty  of  its  structure.  The  approaches 
may  be  symbolized  by  the  plan  of  Solomon's 
Temple,  or  of  any  Christian  church.  There  are 
the  Outer  Court,  and  the  Inner  Court,  and  the 
Holy  of  Holies.  There  are  the  Nave  and  the 
Choir  and  the  Sanctuary.  But  the  temple  is 
one  —  the  church  is  one.  This  structure  of  the 
service  is  carried  through  with  amazing  symmetry 
and  proportion  and  richness  of  detail,  like  an  ar- 
chitectural plan.  The  first  approach  may  be  called 
the  Instructional  Approach.  Here  are  the  Scrip- 
tural lessons,  from  the  New  Testament,  in  Epistle 
and  Gospel,  and  from  the  Old,  in  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments; and  here  through  the  same  enunciation 
of  God's  law,  is  the  opportunity  for  self-examina- 
tion. The  second  approach  may  be  called  the  In- 
tercessional  Approach.  Here  is  the  remembrance 
of  our  brethren  in  the  giving  of  alms,  and  in  the 
great  intercession,  which  leads  as  intercession  does, 
to  confession,  followed  by  the  assurance  of  God's 
forgiveness,  fortified  by  the  summary  of  his  gifts  of 
grace,  as  contained  in  the  Comfortable  Words. 
The  third  approach  is  the  Sacramental  Approach, 
with  the  central  Prayer  of  Consecration  and  its 
Words  of  Institution,  followed  by  the  Communion 
of  the  people. 

Moreover,   each   approach   is  ordered   in   a   cor- 


68    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

responding  manner  with  every  other,  in  the  method 
of  its  inauguration  and  of  its  climax.  Each  be- 
gins, with  the  priest  and  people,  so  to  speak,  on 
their  knees  in  humility  or  penitence,  and  each  ends 
with  an  outburst  of  triumphant  thanksgiving  and 
praise.  In  the  first,  we  begin  with  the  Office's  col- 
lect, and  its  prayer  that  the  thoughts  of  our  hearts 
may  be  cleansed;  and  we  end  with  the  triumphant 
singing  or  saying  of  the  Nicene  Creed.  In  the  sec- 
ond, we  begin  with  the  great  prayer  of  intercession 
which  takes  up  into  itself  our  alms  and  oblations, 
and  we  end  with  the  exultant  Sanctus.  In  the 
third,  we  begin  with  the  prayer  of  humble  access, 
and  the  sense  of  our  unworthiness  so  much  as  to 
gather  up  the  crumbs,  and  we  end,  after  the  cul- 
minating Lord's  Prayer  and  word  of  Thanksgiving, 
with  the  praises  of  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis.  And 
then,  with  the  Blessing,  the  service  is  over,  and  it 
is  over  with  a  sense  of  completeness.  The  unity  is 
the  striking  fact,  and  gives  its  compelling  force  and 
beauty  to  the  supreme  act  of  worship.  It  is  an  ap- 
proach through  a  series,  but  it  is  one  great  ap- 
proach. No  part  is  detachable  or  inconsequential. 
It  is  a  progressive  realization  of  the  fundamental 
facts  of  God's  gift,  and  of  man's  participation.  It 
is  a  continuous  and  self-completing  sacrifice. 
Priest  and  people  together  enter  into  solemn  prepa- 
ration, together  they  consecrate  the  bread  and  wine, 
and  plead  the  sacrifice,  together  they  partake  of 
the  Body  and  Blood.  All  are  interdependent  in  one 
communion,  all  parts  of  the  service  are  indis- 
solubly  united,  and  contribute  essentially  to  the  per- 
fection of  the  whole. 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION  69 

The  service  of  our  Prayer  Book  indubitably  de- 
rives its  greatness,  in  a  true  sense,  from  the  fact 
that  its  roots  are  in  the  great  liturgies  of  the  past, 
and  from  its  fidelity  to  the  total  experience  of  wor- 
shiping Christendom.  But  it  may  claim  with  rea- 
son that  it  is  a  very  perfect  flower  of  a  long  process 
of  growth,  and  though  sometimes  the  methods  of 
its  development  have  been  almost  by  accident,  while 
again  they  have  been  through  deliberate  determina- 
tion, the  result  is  a  model,  not  necessarily  perfect, 
or  the  denial  of  further  development  to  come, —  but 
yet  a  model,  to  which  the  churches  of  the  Anglican 
Communion  and  churches  everywhere,  may  well 
look  vs^ith  imitative  envy,  and  gratitude. 


VIII 

THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE    BOOK   AND  ITS    USE 

I 

THE  question  was  asked  in  the  opening  chap- 
ter whether,  and  if  so,  how,  our  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  expressed  and  fulfilled  the  mani- 
fold needs  of  the  human  heart  as  it  came  to  worship 
God.  It  is  hoped  that  this  question  has  been 
answered.  But  not  only,  as  was  said  in  the  closing 
words  of  Chapter  V,  does  it  satisfy  the  needs  of 
the  individual  worshiper,  not  only  does  it  bring 
the  individual  into  a  common  worship  with  other 
individuals,  its  scope  is  far  wider.  It  has  no  sym- 
pathy with  the  selfish  "  private  worship  in  public," 
which  so  many  try  to  make  it.  It  is  the  People's 
Book.  The  word  *'  Common "  in  its  title  has 
the  same  connotation  as  in  "  Commonwealth,"  it 
is  less  for  the  individual  than  for  the  co?nmunity. 

This  comes  not  only  from  its  Catholic  compre- 
hensiveness, its  determined  acceptance  of  opposite 
views,  nor  from  its  touching  the  needs  and  aspira- 
tions of  every  part  of  a  man  and  of  so  many  differ- 
ent kinds  of  men,  but  from  its  inherent  interest  in 
and  insistence  on  the  social  side  of  man's  life.  It 
has  caught  its  spirit  from  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
*'  After  this  manner,  therefore  pray  ye,  say  Our 
70 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  BOOK         71 

Father."  The  "we"  and  ''us"  and  "our"  are 
not  editorial  but  vital.  They  mean  what  they  say 
and  they  call  on  us  to  mean  it.  The  congregation 
which  uses  this  Book  is  not  a  congeries  of  units, 
a  number  of  grains  of  sand  in  a  heap,  with  no  co- 
hesion nor  unity.  It  is  a  body  of  worshipers  ap- 
proaching God  as  an  organic  unity,  each  cooperating 
with  each,  and  all  forming  the  body  of  Christ  which 
is  the  Church. 

There  is  a  time  and  a  place  for  a  man  to  stand 
before  God  alone.  We  all  must.  But  when  we 
assemble  and  meet  together  to  use  this  Book,  is  not 
the  time.  It  fulfills  and  expands  the  form  of  wor- 
ship Christ  gave  us  in  the  Lord's  Prayer.  It  com- 
pels us,  like  that,  to  clasp  hands  in  spirit  with  all 
our  brothers  and  thus  to  approach  our  Father  to- 
gether. Here  we  are  forced  to  remember  that  all 
we  are  brethren,  that  we  are  one  in  our  sin  and  in 
our  need  of  salvation,  one  in  our  desire  to  praise 
God,  and  that  it  is  good  and  necessary  to  pray  one 
for  another.  The  Prayer  Book's  Confession  of  Sin, 
whether  in  Daily  Office,  or  Communion  Service,  is 
not  y€ur  sin  or  mine;  the  terms  are  too  general  to 
satisfy  the  individual  conscience,  which  has  to  say, 
"  thus  and  thus  have  I  sinned  and  done  this  evil  in 
thy  sight."  It  is  purposely  general,  because  it  is 
confession  of  the  corporate  sin  of  a  great  body  of 
people.  Our  thoughts  are  to  be  lifted  from  what 
we  have  done  that  is  wrong  to  the  sin  of  the  world, 
the  sins  of  the  people  kneeling  by  us,  the  crimes 
committed  in  our  community;  and  we  are  made  to 
feel  these  vicariously  as  our  own,  the  shame  and 
blame  of  them,  the  need  of  repentance  for  them, 


72    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

and  the  need  of  forgiveness.  Our  common  brother- 
hood makes  us  responsible  for  the  sins  of  our  broth- 
ers, makes  us  share  them,  makes  us  feel  their  weight. 
In  like  manner  the  great  words  of  the  Absolution 
declare  that  God  promises  forgiveness  to  his  people, 
that  he  pardoneth  all  who  truly  repent,  in  which 
pardon  we  pray  that  we  may  have  a  share.  And 
after  confession  and  absolution  comes  the  climax 
in  the  Lord's  Prayer  whose  spirit  we  have  now 
caught  and  whose  words  we  can  now  say.  This 
is  what  is  meant  by  the  Social  Character  of  our 
Book  of  Worship. 

It  is  still  further  expressed  by  its  common  praise, 
too  often  usurped  by  a  choir.  When  we  rise  from 
our  knees  and  stand  in  joy,  all  of  us  should  sing 
aloud ;  *'  O  come  let  us  sing  unto  the  Lord,  let  us 
heartily  rejoice  in  the  strength  of  our  salvation  " ; 
or  "  Glory  be  to  God  on  High,  and  on  earth 
peace."  It  is  a  perfect  example  of  that  modern  ex- 
ercise called  "  a  community  sing,"  the  spontaneous 
expression  of  a  common  joy,  into  which  all  must 
enter  if  it  is  to  be  worthily  expressed.  And  in  the 
hearing  of  the  message  from  God,  wherever  in  any 
service  the  Word  is  read,  the  burden  in  the  Old 
Testament  is  that  of  a  people,  a  nation,  guided  and 
redeemed  by  God  as  a  whole;  and  in  the  New,  that 
of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of 
Man.  Nor  do  we  forget  how  largely  the  prayers 
are  intercessory,  remembering  the  needs  of  others 
before  our  own. 

Here  is  the  Social  Gospel  proclaimed  in  every  part 
of  our  Book.  It  belongs  to  the  people  and  has  their 
interests  at  heart.     It   is  not   something  for  good 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  BOOK         73 

Episcopalians  to  enjoy,  in  beautiful  churches  and 
with  sumptuous  adjuncts,  but  should  be  heard  like 
the  Lord,  by  the  common  people  gladly;  as  it  will 
be  when  they  understand  what  is  their  heritage. 

If  this  is  true,  instead  of  being  one  of  the  dis- 
tinctive (and  separating)  marks  of  our  Episcopal 
Church,  the  Prayer  Book  should  of^er  one  of  the 
strongest  bonds  of  unity  to  Christians  of  every 
name. 

n 

This  spirit  of  the  Book,  which  makes  of  it  a 
unifier  for  all  Christian  worshipers,  imposes  upon 
its  users  a  serious  responsibility.  As  its  users,  they 
are  in  a  real  sense  its  possessors,  and  its  possessors  in 
order  that  they  may  give  it  freely  to  the  world's 
and  the  Church's  needs.  In  the  long  run  its  wider 
influence  rests  upon  the  simple  devotion  of  the 
worshipers  who  use  the  book,  and  upon  their  in- 
telligent, high-minded,  and  true-hearted  employ- 
ment of  its  great  expressions  of  worship. 

As  one  dwells  upon  the  beauty  and  impressiveness 
of  each  of  its  great  services,  a  thought  which  is  sure 
to  be  brought  home  is  this.  The  occasion  of  the 
use  of  any  one  of  these  is  a  great  opportunity,  a 
great  event.  This  ought  to  be  the  conviction  of 
every  individual  who  goes  to  God's  house  to  wor- 
ship. He  is  to  take  his  part  in  a  great  act  of 
worship,  which  is  to  be  ordered  according  to  a  form 
of  service,  which  has  been  perfected  in  its  expres- 
sion through  the  thought  and  experience  and  inspi- 
ration of  ages  of  worship  and  of  leaders  of  worship. 
There  ought  to  be  an  exhilaration  and  a  sobriety 


74    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

and  a  joy  in  his  approach.  His  silent  prayer  of 
preparation  ought  to  be  a  heartfelt  prayer  that  he 
may  be  worthy  to  be  a  partaker,  and  that  he  may 
make  a  complete  offering,  keeping  nothing  back, 
whether  of  penitence  or  praise. 

And  here  it  must  be  recognized  how  much  de- 
pends upon  the  leader  of  the  worship.  If  the  serv- 
ice is  a  great  event  for  the  worshiper  in  the  pew, 
how  great  an  event  ought  it  to  be  for  the  minister. 
He  brings  not  only  the  needs  and  offerings  of  his 
own  soul,  but  the  demands  upon  him  of  all  the 
waiting  people.  His  is  a  great  responsibility, —  to 
be  the  sufficient  medium  for  utterance,  the  director 
and  inspirer,  the  interpreter,  encourager,  ambassa- 
dor in  Christ's  stead.  These  things  are  not  said 
with  a  view  of  suggesting  any  external  dignity  of 
office,  or  any  superior  or  imposed  priesthood.  They 
are  said  simply  to  call  to  mind  the  facts  of  the 
situation,  the  inescapable  findings  of  experience. 
So  much,  so  very  much  depends  on  the  minister. 
It  is  true  that  there  are  the  prayers  and  hymns 
themselves,  the  forms  of  the  service,  the  great  words 
and  sublime  thoughts,  made  doubly  sacred  by  age- 
long and  precious  associations  —  these  things  which 
no  man  can  take  away.  It  is  true  that  in  a  very 
real  sense  the  book  itself  in  the  worshiper's  hand 
is  a  protection  from  the  vagaries  of  the  minister. 
And  yet  when  all  is  said,  so  much  depends  upon 
him.  In  the  light  of  the  great  event,  there  is  surely 
no  room  for  lack  of  preparation  on  his  part.  He 
ought  to  know  beforehand  what  he  is  going  to  read 
from  God's  word  and  how  to  read  it.     Surely  he 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  BOOK         75 

ought  to  pray,  not  read,  the  prayers,  and  know  and 
feel  just  what  prayers  ought  to  be  prayed  that  day 
and  that  hour.  And  the  words  of  praise  in  hymn 
and  canticle  that  are  to  be  the  people's  utterances 
ought  to  be  his  special  care.  The  unity  of  impres- 
sion of  that  given  service  which  it  is  so  possible  to 
obtain,  through  an  understanding  of  the  book's 
riches  and  possibilities  in  variety  and  flexibility, — 
this  must  be  his  care.  In  face  of  the  great  event, 
there  can  be  no  room  for  thoughtlessness,  careless- 
ness, the  slipshod  or  irreverent  manner,  the  unin- 
telligible utterance,  the  destro5ing  wrong  emphasis, 
the  annoying  and  obtrusive  mannerism,  the  unsym- 
pathetic and  perfunctory  rendering,  and  the  half- 
hearted entrance  into  the  act  of  w-orship.  And  yet 
these  things  happen,  and  happen  often.  Ministers 
and  people  cannot  tell  themselves  too  often  that  the 
service  in  which  they  take  part  is  a  great  event. 

Unity  is  the  watchword  of  our  day  and  genera- 
tion. Whether  it  be  unity  between  classes  or  races, 
unity  Industrial  or  social,  the  unity  between  nations 
which  is  to  insure  a  new  and  better  world,  or  the 
unity  of  the  Church,  which  seizes  the  imagination 
and  fires  the  zeal,  it  Is  for  unity  that  the  religious 
labor  most  earnestly,  It  Is  the  vision  of  the  coming 
Kingdom  that  most  Insistently  Inspires  the  enthus- 
iasm of  Christian  worshipers.  It  Is  because  our 
People's  Book  of  Worship  Is  so  great  a  medium  for 
the  realizing  of  unity,  so  truly  a  handbook  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  and  of  his  Christ,  that  the  lovers 
and  users  of  It  must  hold  It  as  a  sacred  trust,  and 
so  deeply  feel  their  responsibility  that  their  use  of 


76    THE  PEOPLE'S  BOOK  OF  WORSHIP 

it,  and  their  whole-hearted  participation  in  its 
services,  will  render  it  the  efficient  and  compelling 
instrument  it  may  well  be  in  the  great  cause  of 
universal  Christian  fellowship. 


THE   END 


PRINTED    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES    OF    AMERICA 


THE   following    pages   contain   advertisements    of   a 
few  of  the  Macmillan  books  on   kindred  subjects. 


Report  of  the  Joint  Commission 
on  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 

Boards,  i2mo 

This  is  the  second  Report  of  the  Commission,  the  first  having 
been  made  to  the  General  Convention  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
at  St.  Louis  in  1916.  The  volume  contains  the  recommendations 
which  are  to  be  made  to  the  Convention  of  this  year,  which  is 
to  meet  in  Detroit  next  October.  The  book  will  be  of  general  in- 
terest, since  it  contains  in  addition  to  the  suggested  details  of 
revision,  many  new  prayers  and  new  services  which  are  proposed 
as  substitutes  for  those  now  in  the  Prayer  Book  or  as  new  ma- 
terial. These  services  include  the  Baptismal  service,  Offices  of 
Instruction  to  take  the  place  of  the  Church  Catechism,  a  new 
order  for  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick,  an  Office  for  the  Admission 
of  Deaconesses,  and  forms  of  Litany,  Intercession,  and  Thanks- 
giving, as  well  as  a  Compline,  which  are  to  be  placed,  according  to 
the  recommendation,  in  what  will  practically  be  an  appendix  at 
the  end  of  the  Prayer  Book.  While  there  are  numerous  sugges- 
tions for  detailed  revision,  in  those  services  which  are  used  by  the 
people  in  their  worship,  these  services  are  left  on  the  whole  in 
their  present  great  outlines.  The  Occasional  Offices,  on  the  con- 
trary, notably  the  Office  for  the  Burial  of  the  Dead,  show  radical 
changes  and  helpful  enrichment. 

The  present  Report  goes  considerably  beyond  the  Report  of 
1916  in  the  variety  and  extent  of  its  recommendations.  The 
proposals  which  concern  the  amendment  of  the  text  of  the  Psalter 
are  of  special  interest. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers     64-66  Fifth  Avenue     New  York 


DR.  EDWARD  S.  DROWN'S  NEW  BOOK 

God's  Responsibility  for  the  War 

By  Edward  S.  Drown, 

of   the   Episcopal   Theological    School,    Cambridge,    and   Author 

of  "  The  Apostles'  Creed  Today." 

Boards,  J^mo,  $.60 

Why  did  God  permit  the  war?  If  He  is  good,  did  He  not 
want  to  prevent  it?  If  He  is  almighty,  could  He  not  have  done 
so?     Can  we  continue  to  believe  in  God,  the  Father  almighty? 

This  little  book  maintains  that  there  is  a  false  and  a  true  idea 
of  omnipotence.  The  false  idea  holds  that  God  can  do  anvthing 
even  if  it  involve  a  moral  contradiction.  The  true  idea  inter- 
prets omnipotence  in  Christian  terms  as  the  omnipotence  of  the 
divine  suffering  love  which  must  ultimately  prove  to  be  supreme 
power. 

DR.  DROWN'S  RECENT  BOOK 

The  Apostles'  Creed  Today 

Cloth,  J2mo,  $1.00 

Dr.  Drown  first  gives  an  historical  interpretation  of  the  origin 
and  growth  of  the  Apostles'  Creed.  After  this  he  takes  up  the 
different  articles  of  the  creed  relating  each  to  the  whole  and  show- 
ing how  each  of  them  embodies  a  universal  and  continuing  truth. 

The  book  is  intended  for  the  ordinary  layman  who  wants 
things  stated  frankly,  plainly  and  intelligently.  It  will  be  found 
to  illuminate  many  dark  places  and  to  answer  questions  and  clear 
up  doubts. 


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NEW  RELIGIOUS  BOOKS 


CHRISTIAN  INTERNATIONALISM 

By  WILLIAM  PIERSON  MERRILL 

Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.50 
Dr.  Merrill  begins  first  with  a  discussion  of  the  function  of  Christianity 
in  the  world.  He  then  takes  up  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  their  relation  to  internationalism.  The  titles  of  succeeding 
chapters  are  Christianity  and  Internationalism,  Democracy  and  Inter- 
nationalism, America  and  Internationalism,  Constructive  Proposals  for 
International  Order,  Problems  Confronting  Internationahsm,  Christian 
Principles  Underlying  Internationalism,  The  War  and  Internationalism 
and  The  Church  and  Internationalism.  There  is  also  a  final  chapter  in 
which  are  presented  the  author's  conclusions, 

THE  KINGDOM  THAT  MUST  BE  BUILT 

By  WALTER  J.  CAREY  Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.00 
A  man  inspired  by  War's  Example  of  sacrificial  service  wholesale,  felt 
at  close  grips  as  chaplain  in  the  Royal  Navy,  comes  back  to  civil  life 
determined  to  put  an  equivalent  sacriHcial  service  into  his  ministry  there. 
He  calls  on  others  to  join  him,  "The  Kingdom  that  must  be  Built" 
outlines  his  program.  It  calls  for  and  is  calculated  to  call  out  unused 
resci '/es  in  her  members  which  will  effect  a  Christian  penetration  of  the 
world  by  the  church,  heretofore  unknown. 

"Marked  by  Freshness  of  Thought  and  Expression — both  Con- 
MNXiNG  AND  INSPIRING." — Ckurch  Times. 

SIX  THOUSAND  COUNTRY  CHURCHES 

By  CHARLES  OTIS  GILL  and  GIFFORD  PINCHOT 

Published  under  the  authority  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches 

of  Christ  in  America.    With  many  maps  and  diagrams. 

Cloth,  i2mo 
This  is  a  complete  study  of  church  conditions  in  a  part  of  rural  Ohio 
made  with  an  attempt  to  test  the  possibilities  of  interdenominational 
federation.  It  describes  a  situation  where  ignorance  and  superstition 
have  prevailed  despite  the  churches,  or  perhaps  because  of  the  inefEec- 
tiveress  of  the  churches. 

JESUS  AND  THE  YOUNG  MAN  OF  TO-DAY 

By  JOHN  M.  HOLMES 
Gen.  Sec'y  of  the  Central  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  of  Greenville,  S.  C. 

Cloth,  izmo 
There  is  a  period  in  the  life  of  nearly  everyone,  when  the  beliefs  of 
childhood  are  questioned  and  a  restatement  of  faith  is  demanded  which 
shall  meet  the  demands  of  reason  as  well  as  of  the  heart.  It  is  for  those 
who  are  hving  within  this  troubled  period  that  the  present  volume  has 
been  prepared  especially,  though  every  student  of  the  life  of  Christ  will 
be  benfited  by  it.  It  seeks  to  make  clear  the  essentials  of  a  satisfying 
religious  belief.  

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CHURCH  PRINCIPLES  FOR  LAY  PEOPLE 


With  God  in  the  War 


Bv  DR.  CHARLES  L.  SLATTERY, 
Rector  of  Grace  Church,  New  York 

Cloth,  i6mo,  $.60 

"  This  is  a  compilation  by  Dr.  Slattery  and  a  contribution  from 
the  War  Coinniission  of  the  Episcopal  Church  to  the  men  in 
Service.  It  is  meant  to  lift  and  ennoble  their  thought  of  the  war, 
its  purpose  and  way  and  its  ultimate  goal." 

"  The  selections  begin  with  President  Wilson's  declaration 
and  then  follow  notable  utterances  in  prose  and  poetry  from 
Milton,  Lowell,  Service,  Oxenham,  Lord  Roberts,  Alfred  Noyes 
and  many  others.  There  is  a  beautiful  prayer  by  George  Wash- 
ington. Each  section  is  enriched  by  passages  from  Isaiah,  the 
Psalms  and  the  Gospels  and  by  several  fitting  prayers  for  the 
soldier  boys  themselves.  To  them  it  should  come  as  a  wonderful 
inspiration  and  incentive,  and  it  would  do  us  all  good  to  read 
and  use  it."-— Churchman. 


Why  Men  Pray 


By  dr.  CHARLES  L.  SLATTERY 
Rector  of  Grace  Church,  New  York 

Cloth,  i2mo.  $1.00 
The  author  is  in  the  front  rank  of  the  younger  men  in  the 
Episcopal  Ministry ;  his  book  carries  an  authoritative  and  appre- 
ciative message  to  the  steadily  increasing  number  of  people  who 
find  prayer  of  intimate  and  significant  value  in  their  daily  lives. 
"  A  little  volume  of  unusual  power  and  insight.  .  .  .  The  mean- 
ing of  prayer,  its  value  and  results  in  life  and  character  are  very 
practically  and  helpfully  explained." — Independent. 

The  Episcopal  Church:  Its  Faith  and  Order 

By  GEORGE  HODGES, 
Dean  of  the  Episcopal  Theological  School,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.00 
This  present  volume  is  a  concise  statement  of  the  doctrine  and 
discipline  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 

"  The  author  writes  for  humanity,  and  no  better  book  for  re- 
ligious study,  for  clergy,  laity,  and  for  the  younger  members  of 
the  churches  has  appeared  in  some  time." — Review  of  Reviews. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

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Princeton  Theological  Semlnary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  01022  0368 


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